brook

1 of 2

noun

ˈbru̇k How to pronounce brook (audio)
Synonyms of brooknext
: creek sense 1
a babbling brook

brook

2 of 2

verb

brooked; brooking; brooks

transitive verb

: to stand for : tolerate
he would brook no interference with his plans

Synonyms

Noun

Verb

See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus 

Examples of brook in a Sentence

Noun there are tiny fish and frogs in that brook Verb I will not brook insults from my own employees.
Recent Examples on the Web
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Noun
On July 18, 2019, a Cheshire resident with property abutting Cuff Brook observed dead fish and discolored water with an oily sheen in the brook and smelled a chemical odor similar to lighter fluid, officials said. —Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 18 Jan. 2025 At about ten o’clock that night, the bridge finally fell into the brook, but the truck did not follow, and was hauled to safety by a wrecker. —Gary Greenberg, Harper's Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024
Verb
The Palm Beach Town Council will brook no helicopter landings, so that rules out Trump’s black Puma chopper. —Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 8 Jan. 2025 Former New York Times journalists Bari Weiss, Nellie Bowles and Adam Rubinstein have each described Times editors who demanded Hafez Assad-like obeisance to certain Political Truths Of The Left and who brooked little departure from them. —Jeff Robbins, Boston Herald, 14 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for brook 

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Old English brōc; akin to Old High German bruoh marshy ground

Verb

Middle English brouken, broken "to have the benefit of, enjoy, employ, use, eat or drink, stomach, tolerate," going back to Old English brūcan "to enjoy the use of, use, employ, partake (of food or drink), possess," going back to Germanic *brūkan-/*brūkjan- (whence also Old Frisian brūka "to make use of, employ," Old Saxon brūkan "to enjoy the use of," Middle Dutch brūken "to use, enjoy," Old High German brūchan "to enjoy the use of," Gothic brūhjan "to use"), going back to dialectal Indo-European *bhruHg- "enjoy, use" whence also Latin fruor, fruī "to enjoy the produce or proceeds of, derive advantage from, be blessed with, derive pleasure from" (see fruit entry 1)

Note: The Indo-European etymon *bhruHg- is attested only in Germanic and Italic, and within Germanic not in the northern branch (Danish bruge "to use," Swedish bruka, etc., are loans from Low German). In Old English brūcan is a Class II strong verb (preterit breac, brucon, participle brocen), and in Old Saxon brūkan, attested only in the infinitive, is probably also strong. In Middle English and the other Germanic languages, however, it is a weak verb, with only traces of possible strong forms. The phonetic outcome displayed by Modern English brook, with [u], is peculiar and cannot directly continue Old English ū. E. J. Dobson hypothesizes that a new Middle English infinitive with ŭ was formed on the analogy of the weak past tense and past participle early enough to undergo open-syllable lengthening—hence brŭken > brọ̄ken > brook, with [u:] later shortened to [u] (see English Pronunciation, 1500-1700, 2. edition, Oxford, 1968, p. 513). Present-day English continues only a small portion of the original meaning of the verb.

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1530, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of brook was before the 12th century

Phrases Containing brook

Dictionary Entries Near brook

broody coop

brook

Brooke

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Cite this Entry

“Brook.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brook. Accessed 24 Jan. 2025.

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Kids Definition

brook

1 of 2 verb
ˈbru̇k How to pronounce brook (audio)
: tolerate sense 1
brooks no interference

brook

2 of 2 noun
: a small stream
Etymology

Verb

Old English brūcan "to use, enjoy"

Noun

Old English brōc "brook, creek"

More from Merriam-Webster on brook

Nglish: Translation of brook for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of brook for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about brook

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