brown study
nounEtymology From obsolete brown (“gloomy”) and study.
- Phædra. [...] Why Soſia! What, in a brown Study? / Soſia. A little cogitabund, or ſo; concerning this diſmal Revolution in our Family!1690, [John] Dryden, Amphitryon; or, The Two Sosia’s. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […]; and M. Tonson […], published 1691, →OCLC, Act III, pages 29–30:
- So gathering up the shavings with another grin, and throwing them into the great stove in the middle of the room, he went about his business, and left me in a brown study.1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:
4 more examples
- Finding that Holmes was too absorbed for conversation, I had tossed aside the barren paper, and leaning back in my chair, I fell into a brown study. Suddenly my companion's voice broke in upon my thoughts.1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box:
- After that he kept such a silence, falling as it seemed to me into a brown study, that he went away without so much as bidding me farewell, or being conscious, as far as I could tell, of my presence.1893, Stanley J. Weyman, “Chapter II. The King of Navarre”, in A Gentleman of France:
- Once or twice she spoke harshly to Louis; she fell at other times into a brown study; and when she thought that I was not watching her, her face wore a look of deep anxiety.1894, Stanley J. Weyman, “Chapter IV”, in Under the Red Robe:
- Major Valentine came in—to find me in a brown study.1918, Joseph Smith Fletcher, “Chapter III: The Covent Garden Fruit Shop”, in Paul Campenhaye, Specialist in Criminology: