brook
noun
a small, natural stream of fresh water.
brook
1 American
[brook]
/ brʊk /
noun
-
brooks
plural
brook
2
American
[brook]
/ brʊk /
verb (used with object)
-
brooks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
brooked,
past participle, past
-
brooking
present participle
Brook
1
British
/ brʊk /
noun
brook
2
British
/ brʊk /
noun
brook
3
British
/ brʊk /
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
brooksimple
-
brookssimple
-
have brookedperfect
-
has brookedperfect
-
am brookingprogressive
-
are brookingprogressive
-
is brookingprogressive
-
have been brookingperfect progressive
-
has been brookingperfect progressive
Past
-
brookedsimple
-
had brookedperfect
-
was brookingprogressive
-
were brookingprogressive
-
had been brookingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brook1
before 900; Middle English; Old English brōc stream; cognate with Dutch broek, German Bruch marsh
Origin of brook2
before 900; Middle English brouken, Old English brūcan; cognate with Dutch bruiken, German brauchen; akin to Gothic brukjan, Latin fruī to enjoy
Explanation
A brook is a small stream. On a hot day, you might enjoy wading in a babbling brook. As a verb, brook is a rather stuffy word for "put up with." The lord of the manor might say, "I will brook no trespassing on my land." Brook is tailor-made for talking about what you won't stand for — it's always "brook no..." If you brook no criticism of your friend, it means you won't let people speak ill of her. If you brook no brooks, it means you've developed a bizarre hatred of streams and will spend the rest of your days trying to avoid them.
Vocabulary lists containing brook
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As we climbed the terraced pools of the West Kill, I concentrated on keeping my cast short and precise until I caught my first brook trout, or “brookie.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Large-scale protests are rare in Vietnam, where the communist authorities brook little dissent.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Four of the offences included discharging higher-than-permitted levels of cyanide into the Manchester Ship Canal, a nearby river and a local brook.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
But because she’s telling the worst men what they want to hear, Stuckey has created space for herself to live out the usually male role of being the pompous bully who will brook no dissent.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2025
I could get water by sneaking to the brook at night.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
Brook adjusted his game to the situation before he was out for 34, superbly caught up to the stumps by wicketkeeper Muhammad Rizwan.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Time and again both he and Brook were beaten by the movement generated by the Pakistan seamers.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Like the other batters, his mark comes with the caveat of Pakistan's bowling attack being poor but, after all that has come before, Brook batted as many have asked him to.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
It must be the blueprint for Brook across the rest of his Test career.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Dear Mrs. Brook I’m sorry about your difficult sister and the babies who are still inside of her causing trouble.
From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine
It is a remarkable climb-down, underscoring the difficulty of spurring the transition to electric vehicles even in an authoritarian country that brooks little dissent.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
His strictly regulated factory model brooks no challenges from his workers, and he employs an enormous security force to snuff out the merest whisper of pro-union sentiment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
The mountains and valleys, the rivers and brooks, the occasional deer or bear are as much a part of the mise-en-scène as the series’ complicated, yet essentially straightforward heroes and villains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025
Critics argue that the whirr of chopper blades is drowning out the sound of birds, bubbling lava and babbling brooks.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2023
They had splashed through two brooks and wandered fearfully in the deep woodlands west of Ecchinswell.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Critics say Kainerugaba has brooked little opposition in the country, acting decisively against anyone perceived as a threat to his father's administration.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
Gottheimer quickly admitted to fabricating the post but brooked no argument over his Boss bona fides.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2024
He brooked no challenges, no outside interference, no distractions.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2022
How can his colleagues have brooked such a thing?
From Washington Times ● Apr. 13, 2021
Her eyes darkened as though her pupils had engulfed her irises, and Sarai felt it coming, the response that brooked no comeback: Tell that to the other babies.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Hayling had seen youth spark the Birmingham movement in May, brooking the blasts from the fire hoses and the jaws of the German shepherds.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 12, 2022
This may be true, but it puts officials at a disadvantage when they get into shaming contests with governments that are more than eager to point out American hypocrisy while brooking no criticism back home.
From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2021
“It doesn’t really matter who wins from that perspective. And there’s just no brooking that divide right now.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2020
Not brooking even possible party division may pay off.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 26, 2019
And now her voice brooking in my ear, in a voice I hardly recognized.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
