# brook

Pronunciation: US say "BRUUK" /bɹʊk/; UK

## Noun

1. A small stream: a body of running water that is smaller than a river.
   - Simple: A small stream of moving water, smaller than a river.
   - _The trail crosses a shallow brook on stepping stones before climbing into the pines._
   - _Dozens of small brooks drain the hillside and feed the river below._

## Verb

2. To tolerate or put up with something, used mainly in negative statements such as brook no argument.
   - Simple: To allow or put up with something. People usually use it to say they won't.
   - _The judge warned that she would brook no further interruptions from the gallery._
   - _His reply came in a tone that brooked no argument._

## Verb

3. To earn something, or to be worthy of receiving it. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To earn something or to deserve it.

## Other meanings

- (proper noun) An English family name that first described a person whose home was beside a stream.
- (proper noun) A first name for boys, taken from a family name and used as another form of Brooks.
- (proper noun) A family name taken from the Hebrew name Baruch, which means blessed.
- (verb) To have the use of something and benefit from it, or to own, hold, or enjoy it.
- (noun) In Sussex and Kent dialect, low-lying wet or marshy ground, especially a water meadow beside a stream that floods from time to time.

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — Proto-West Germanic *brōk ("stream") gave Old English brōc ("brook, stream, torrent"), which became Middle English brook.
**Meanings 2–3** — The English surname and place names come from the noun brook ('small stream'), and the given names come from the surname. Similar German, Dutch, and Jewish surnames come from related words meaning 'marsh' or 'wetland'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/brook (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).