brook

Etymology 1

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”). Swedish bruka (“to use”), Dutch gebruiken (“to use”) and German brauchen (“to need”) are cognate.

verb

1. (transitive, formal, chiefly in the negative) To bear; endure; support; put up with; tolerate.
   brook no refusal
   I will not brook any disobedience.
   I will brook no impertinence.
   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. 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
   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, 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. 19 May 2019, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club
   On just the first day of the war, more than 1,300 protesters across Russia, many of them chanting “No to war,” were detained, The Times reported, quoting a rights group. That’s no small number in a country where Putin brooks little dissent. 2022-02-25, Thomas L. Friedman, “We Have Never Been Here Before”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. (transitive, obsolete) To use; enjoy; have the full employment of.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To earn; deserve.

Etymology 2

From Middle English brook, from Old English brōc (“brook; stream; torrent”), from Proto-West Germanic *brōk (“stream”).

noun

1. A body of running water smaller than a river; a small stream.
2. (Sussex, Kent) A water meadow.
3. (Sussex, Kent, in the plural) Low, marshy ground.