English Explanatory Dictionary

bleak

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Without color; pale; pallid.
  2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
  3. Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
noun
  1. A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.

Pronunciation

/bliːk/ en-us-bleak.ogg

Word forms

bleak bleaker bleakest bleaks

Etymology

From Middle English bleke (also bleche, whence the English doublet bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English blǣc, blǣċ, blāc (“bleak, pale, pallid”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), all from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). Cognate with Dutch bleek (“pale, wan, pallid”), Low German blek (“pale”), German bleich (“pale, wan, sallow”), Danish bleg (“pale”), Swedish blek (“pale, pallid”), Norwegian Bokmål bleik, blek (“pale”), Norwegian Nynorsk bleik (“pale”), Faroese bleikur (“pale”), Icelandic bleikur (“pale, pink”).

Synonyms

pasty sallow ashen ashen-faced ashy blake blanched bleak bloodless chalky exsanguious ghastly grey livid pale pallid wan washed out white whey-faced dismal lugubrious cheerless comfortless dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate doleful dolesome drear drearisome dreary dreich forlorn gayless gray gloomsome gloomy grim joyless lack-laughter melancholy mirthless miserable no joke saturnine solemn somber sombre spiritless sullen sunless uncheerful uncheery unhappy unmerry wintry

Derived words

bleaken bleakish bleakly bleakness bleakonomics bleaksome unbleak Danube bleak sunbleak
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