Word Study
bleak
CIDE DICTIONARY
bleak, a. [OE. blac, bleyke, bleche, AS. blāc, bl, pale, wan; akin to Icel. bleikr, Sw. blek, Dan. bleg, OS. bl, D. bleek, OHG. pleih, G. bleich; all from the root of AS. blīcan to shine; akin to OHG. blīchen to shine; cf. L. flagrare to burn, Gr. fle`gein to burn, shine, Skr. bhrāj to shine, and E. flame. Bleach, Blink, Flame.].
- Without color; pale; pallid. [1913 Webster]"When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead." [1913 Webster]
- Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds. [1913 Webster]"Wastes too bleak to rear
The common growth of earth, the foodful ear." [1913 Webster]"At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach." [1913 Webster] - Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
bleak, adj.
1 bare, exposed; windswept.
2 unpromising; dreary (bleak prospects).
1 bare, exposed; windswept.
2 unpromising; dreary (bleak prospects).
Derivative
bleakly adv. bleakness n.
bleak, n. any of various species of small river-fish, esp. Alburnus alburnus.
Etymology
ME prob. f. ON bleikja, OHG bleicha f. Gmc
THESAURUS
bleak
Siberian, affecting, afflictive, affording no hope, algid, apathetic, arctic, austere, bare, barren, below zero, biting, bitter, bitterly cold, black, blown, boreal, brisk, brumal, cheerless, chilly, cold, cold as charity, cold as death, cold as ice, cold as marble, comfortless, crisp, cutting, dark, deplorable, depressing, depressive, desolate, despairing, desperate, despondent, discomforting, disconsolate, disheartening, dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dour, drear, drearisome, dreary, exposed, forlorn, freezing, freezing cold, frigid, funebrial, funereal, gelid, glacial, gloomy, grave, gray, grievous, grim, hard, harsh, hibernal, hiemal, hopeless, hyperborean, ice-cold, ice-encrusted, icelike, icy, in despair, inclement, joyless, keen, lamentable, melancholy, mournful, moving, nipping, nippy, numbing, oppressive, painful, pathetic, penetrating, piercing, pinching, piteous, pitiable, poignant, raw, regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad, saddening, saturnine, severe, sharp, sleety, slushy, snappy, solemn, somber, sombrous, sore, sorrowful, stone-cold, stringent, subzero, supercooled, touching, triste, uncomfortable, unhappy, unhopeful, weariful, wearisome, weary, windblown, windswept, winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry, without hope, woebegone, woeful, wretchedROGET THESAURUS
bleak
Cold
N cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre.For further exploring for "bleak" in Webster Dictionary Online
