brooding

adjective

brood·​ing ˈbrü-diŋ 

1

: moodily or sullenly thoughtful or serious

a brooding genius

a brooding, embittered man

2

: darkly somber

a brooding landscape

a quiet, brooding atmosphere

… brooding, violent images reminiscent of … film noir …

—Tracy Hopkins

broodingly adverb

a broodingly handsome actor

Gardner gazes broodingly at the camera …

—Kathleen Murphy

Examples of brooding in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

No more brooding alone at house parties. —Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 19 Feb. 2026

As Heathcliff, the Scottish actor Robert Cavanah is more brooding than dashing, but that hard edge works for the character’s grim undertones. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2026

This isn't the one-note brooding, mysterious kind of troubled hero we're used to seeing. —Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 27 Jan. 2026

Feldman had been asked whether his corpus of work, with its brooding slowness and trembling softness, had something to do with Jewish mourning in the wake of the Holocaust. —Alex Ross, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1818, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for brooding

• feuding
• alluding
• colluding
• concluding
• deluding
• denuding
• eluding
• excluding
• extruding
• exuding
• including
• intruding