English

Alternative forms

• Brooke

Proper noun

Brook

1. A surname​ for someone living by a brook.
2. A surname​, a transliteration and normalization of Hebrew ברך ‎(barúkh, “blessed”).
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
4. A female given name of modern usage; more often spelled Brooke.

German Low German

Etymology

From Middle Low German brôk, from Old Saxon *brōk, from Proto-Germanic *brōkaz. More at brook.

Noun

Brook m, n (plural Broken)

1. A marsh; swamp

English

Verb

brook ‎(third-person singular simple present brooks, present participle brooking, simple past and past participle brooked)

1. (transitive, obsolete, except in Scots) To use; enjoy; have the full employment of.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To earn; deserve.
3. (transitive) To bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate (usually used in the negative, with an abstract noun as object).

   I will not brook any disobedience.   I will brook no refusal.‎

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     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.

   • 1966, Garcilaso de la Vega, H. V. Livermore, Karen Spalding, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru (Abridged), Hackett Publishing (ISBN 9781603849289), page 104

     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

Derived terms

• abrook

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English brook, from Old English brōc ‎(“brook; stream; torrent”), from Proto-Germanic *brōkaz ‎(“stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *mrāǵ- ‎(“silt; slime”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Brouk ‎(“swamp”), Dutch broek ‎(“marsh; swamp”), Low German Brook ‎(“swamp; marsh”), German Bruch ‎(“swamp; marsh”), Ancient Greek βράγος ‎(brágos, “shallows”) and Albanian bërrak ‎(“swampy soil”).

Noun

brook ‎(plural brooks)

1. A body of running water smaller than a river; a small stream.
   • Bible, Deuteronomy viii. 7

     The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water.

   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

     empties itself, as doth an inland brook / into the main of waters

   • 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapter1:

     But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, […].

2. (Sussex, Kent) A water meadow.
3. (Sussex, Kent, in the plural) Low, marshy ground.

Synonyms

• beck
• burn
• coulee
• creek
• stream

Translations

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English bro(o)ken ‎(“to use, enjoy, digest”), from Old English brūcan ‎(“to use, enjoy”). See also brouk.

Verb

tae brook

1. To enjoy the use or owndom of.