brown studies

A form of brown study — A melancholy mood accompanied by deep thought; a moody daydream.

Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of brown study

    She was pensive, she drooped; more than once she sighed unromantically through her nose; she went off into brown studies;

    2011, Stella Gibbons, White Sand and Grey Sand, →ISBN, page 275
    2 more examples

    She was all right. The abuse she was suffering wouldn't hurt her. The bright sun would forget all about it. The smoggy sky would turn brown studies to gold. (What crap.)

    2007, W. Schmitz, The Violet Catastrophe, →ISBN, pages 33–34

    Verville, author of Moyen de Parvenir, and others equally well known, among whom we will specially mention the Sieur Descartes, because he was a melancholy genius, and devoted himself more to brown studies than to drinks and dainties, a man of whom all the cooks and confectioners of Tours have a wise horror, shom they despise, and will not hear spoken of, and say, "Where does he live? if his name is mentioned.

    2007, Honoré de Balzac, Droll Stories, →ISBN, page 3
Cite this entry
APA

brown studies. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brown%20studies

MLA

“brown studies.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brown%20studies. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brown studies,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brown%20studies.

Source: brown studies on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.