Brook Meaning
/bɹʊk/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate.
verbTo enjoy the use of; make use of; profit by; to use, enjoy, possess, or hold.
Sentence Examples
His pride would not brook such insults.
We can hear a brook murmuring.
She watched the children playing in the brook.
CEFR Practice Quiz
A small ____ of fresh water flows through the meadow.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We could hear the sound of the small ____ flowing over the rocks.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English brouken (“to use, enjoy”), from Old English brūcan (“to enjoy, brook, use, possess, partake of, spend”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūkan, from Proto-Germanic *brūkaną (“to enjoy, use”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰruHg- (“to enjoy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian bruke (“to need”), Dutch bruiken (“to use”), German Low German bruken (“to need”), German brauchen (“to need”), Swedish bruka (“to use”), Icelandic brúka (“to use”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"how shall I brook to be the first cause of difference between a father and son, to whom the averted look and the harsh word have been hitherto unknown?"
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 22:
"But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion."
— 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
"After delivering the reply he ordered the annalists, who have charge of the knots, to take note of it and include it in their tradition. By now the Spaniards, who were unable to brook the length of the discourse, had left their places and fallen on the Indians"
— 1966, Garcilaso de la Vega, H. V. Livermore, Karen Spalding, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru (Abridged), Hackett Publishing, →ISBN, page 104:
"The norm is submission to the supposed iron laws of technological inevitability that brook no impediment."
— 2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 13, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:
"The faith in destiny and moral certainty claimed by would-be liberators brooks no resistance, and to register objections to their devotion is to be seen as the enemy of rightness."
— 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 22 May 2019:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
A small ____ of fresh water flows through the meadow.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We could hear the sound of the small ____ flowing over the rocks.