🍲 A hot dish 🍲 To cook slowly 😡 To stay upset 😰 A worried state

to stew

17 6.4

To stay quietly angry and keep thinking about it

verb
/stu/

Informal

: darle vueltas (a)

After the argument, he spent the evening stewing in silence rather than discussing the issue.
let him stew
sit and stew
leave them stewing

I have to go home and like Stew in it, you know, And then I come up with the perfect.

Autoplay Next

Examples

I can see my mother now, stewing about where she's going to put everybody.

The Quiet American (1958)
I'm still stewing about that binder incident, Jerry.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Now sit in here and stew on it.

Clown in a Cornfield (2025)
Give him some time to stew and then go after him.

Fiction book (1999)
We'll let him stew for a day and then drop the tape.

Fiction book (1998)
I'll let you Stew about that one for a while.
So I'm going to let that Stew with you till next time.
A silence as the sergeant lets her stew for a moment.

Fiction book (1996)
- Nine months is a long time to stew about being two-timed.

Burbiszki (2020)
And she ends up staying at this diner and nothing much happens to her, and she just kind of stews in the regret.

Film Courage

Synonyms

to brood

vsto stew

28 6.1

To think about something in a sad, worried way

stays silently angry and lets negative feelings slowly build up

to smolder

vsto stew

9 6.7

To feel strong anger or hurt without showing it

is calmer and lets negative feelings build rather than explode

to smother one's anger

vsto stew

Informal

7.5

To stop yourself from showing angry feelings

lets negative feelings build up silently instead of pushing them down

Antonyms

to express

∞ 2.3

To show ideas and feelings by words or actions

to release

∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

to communicate

773 2.3

Share information, ideas, or feelings with someone

Compounds

beef stew

9 1.0

A dish of beef cooked slowly with vegetables in liquid

fish stew

1 1.1

A dish of fish cooked slowly in liquid with vegetables and spices

Irish stew

1 2.5

A stew from Ireland cooked slowly with lamb, potatoes and onions

chicken stew

1 1.0

A dish of chicken pieces cooked slowly with vegetables in liquid

Brunswick stew

1 6.1

A spicy Southern stew made with chicken, corn, tomatoes, beans, okra, onions, and potatoes

stew meat

1 2.4

Meat cut into small pieces for slow cooking to make it tender

lobster stew

1 3.4

A hot creamy soup made with pieces of lobster

mulligan stew

1 8.4

A thick dish people make from whatever meat and vegetables they have

hearty stew

1 2.7

A thick, filling soup with meat and vegetables, often with beans or rice

oyster stew

1 3.0

A creamy soup that has oysters cooked in milk or cream

Belgian beef stew

3.4

A dish of beef slowly cooked in beer with garlic and served with boiled potatoes

horse and rabbit stew

9.5

A stew made from horse and rabbit meat

savory stew

1.8

A hot dish where meat and vegetables cook slowly in a tasty liquid

Scouse stew

8.6

A hot dish of meat and vegetables from Liverpool, England

turkey stew

1.0

A thick hot meal of turkey and vegetables cooked together

How Angry

to explode

187 3.5

to fume

22 6.3

to stew

Informal

17 6.4

to sulk

42 3.5

annoyed

77 1.0

Surface Forms

stew infinitive

stewed past

stewed past participle

stewing present participle

stews third person singular

Etymology

Stew meaning to stay silently angry comes from the same cooking picture: you 'stew' when you let anger or worry simmer inside you instead of saying it, which is why to stew is to brood or stay upset.