Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To put up with; tolerate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A natural stream of water, too small to be called a river.
- To draw together and threaten rain: said of the clouds: with up.
- To use; enjoy; have the full employment of.
- . To earn; deserve.
- To bear; endure; support; put up with: always in a negative sense.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To use; to enjoy.
- transitive verb To bear; to endure; to put up with; to tolerate.
- transitive verb obsolete To deserve; to earn.
- noun A natural stream of water smaller than a river or creek.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive, obsolete, except in Scots To
use ;enjoy ; have the full employment of. - verb transitive, obsolete To
earn ;deserve . - verb transitive To
bear ;endure ;support ;put up with ;tolerate (usually used in the negative, with anabstract noun as object). - noun a body of running
water smaller than ariver ; a smallstream . - noun Sussex a
water meadow . - noun Sussex, in the plural low,
marshy ground.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb put up with something or somebody unpleasant
- noun a natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word brook.
Examples
-
"Off on pressing business," cried the sanguine youth, as he dashed through the kitchen, frightening Alice, and throwing Toozle into convulsions of delight -- "horribly important business that ` won't brook delay; 'but what _brook_ means is more than I can guess."
-
"Off on pressing business," cried the sanguine youth, as he dashed through the kitchen, frightening Alice, and throwing Toozle into convulsions of delight, -- "horribly important business, that 'won't brook delay;' but what _brook_ means is more than I can guess."
-
They must go straight over it, till they come to cleared land on the other side; then they must keep along by the edge of the wood, to the right, till they come to the brook; they must _cross the brook_, and follow up the opposite bank, and they'll know the ground when they come to it; or they don't deserve to.
Queechy, Volume I Susan Warner 1852
-
The sound of the mountain brook gives an illusion of rain drops,
Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan b. 974? Murasaki Shikibu Izumi Shikibu 1920
-
This rain, falling on land five, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand feet above the sea level, begins to run back to the sea, picking out the easiest road and cutting a channel that we call a brook, a stream, or a river.
Electricity for the farm Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water wheel or farm engine Frederick Irving Anderson 1912
-
Here, Sam – just bend on this hook for me, while I see how the brook is further up.
Melbourne House 1907
-
"No one cares for me, though I think the brook is sometimes sorry, and tries to tell me things."
-
As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [Umbreit].
-
The word brook was probably lost in the first generation.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster Eggleston, Edward, 1837-1902 1871
-
The word brook was probably lost in the first generation.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana Edward Eggleston 1869
stpeter commented on the word brook
I quite like this word as a verb -- as in sentences like "John will brook no dissent around here." (Not true.)
December 27, 2006
john commented on the word brook
Is brooking sent the same as not brooking dissent? But not to worry, I brook all kinds of things around here.
December 27, 2006
fbharjo commented on the word brook
brook to tolerate is the meaning: but also to flow easily?? (but not silently but with white noise)
December 27, 2006
seanahan commented on the word brook
I like brook as a verb, but not as a noun, as in a babbling brook. The two meanings have separate etymologies, so this isn't inconsistent.
July 10, 2007
slumry commented on the word brook
I like brook as a verb. And as a noun, it is fine. However, it just occured to me why I always think a brook should be still, like a pond.
Fishy, fishy in the brook
Pappa catch you on a hook
Mamma fry you in a pan
Baby eat you like a man.
I always imaged the brook in the rhyme to be a body of still water. Babbling brook just sounds *wrong* to me.
July 10, 2007
fbharjo commented on the word brook
its meaning has gone from 'to enjoy' to 'to tolerate'
September 8, 2009