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- DictionaryBleak/blēk/
adjective
- 1. (of an area of land) lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements: "a bleak and barren moor" Similar bareexposeddesolatestarkariddesertdenudedlunaropenemptywindswepttreelessforestlesswithout vegetationdefoliatedunshelteredunprotectedunshieldedrare:unwoodedOpposite lushverdant
- ▪ (of a building or room) charmless and inhospitable; dreary: "he looked around the bleak little room in despair"
- ▪ (of the weather) cold and miserable: "a bleak midwinter's day" Similar coldkeenrawharshwintrypiercingpenetratingbitingnippingstingingsharpfreezingicyicy-coldfrostyfrigidchillyinformal:nippyparkyBalticliterary:chillOpposite warmbalmy
- ▪ (of a situation or future prospect) not hopeful or encouraging; unlikely to have a favorable outcome: "he paints a bleak picture of a company that has lost its way" Similar unpromisingunfavorableunpropitiousinauspiciousadversedisadvantageousuninvitingdiscouragingdishearteningdepressingcheerlessjoylessgloomysomberdrearydismalwretchedmiserableblackdarkgrimdrabportentousforebodinghopelessominousOpposite promisinghopeful
- ▪ (of a person or a person's expression) cold and forbidding: "his bleak, near vacant eyes grew remote"
Word Origin Old Englishblāc ‘shining, white’, or in later use from synonymous Old Norse bleikr; ultimately of Germanic origin and related to bleach.
Derivatives
- 1. bleakly adverb
Scrabble Points: 11
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3L
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