Bleak

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bleak \Bleak\ (bl[=e]k), a. [OE. blac, bleyke, bleche, AS.
     bl[=a]c, bl[=ae]c, pale, wan; akin to Icel. bleikr, Sw. blek,
     Dan. bleg, OS. bl[=e]k, D. bleek, OHG. pleih, G. bleich; all
     from the root of AS. bl[imac]can to shine; akin to OHG.
     bl[imac]chen to shine; cf. L. flagrare to burn, Gr. fle`gein
     to burn, shine, Skr. bhr[=a]j to shine, and E. flame.


     [root]98. Cf. {Bleach}, {Blink}, {Flame}.]
     1. Without color; pale; pallid. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as
              one that were laid out dead.          --Foxe.
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     2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
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              Wastes too bleak to rear
              The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
                                                    --Wordsworth.
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              At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach.  --Longfellow.
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     3. Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Bleak"ish}, a. -- {Bleak"ly}, adv. --
        {Bleak"ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From {Bleak}, a., cf. {Blay}.] (Zool.)
     A small European river fish ({Leuciscus alburnus}), of the
     family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also {blick}.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is
           used in the manufacture of artificial pearls. --Baird.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  bleak
       adj 1: offering little or no hope; "the future looked black";
              "prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has
              always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a
              dim view of things" [syn: {black}, {dim}]
       2: providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills";
          "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high
          Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark
          landscape" [syn: {bare}, {barren}, {desolate}, {stark}]
       3: unpleasantly cold and damp; "bleak winds of the North
          Atlantic" [syn: {cutting}, {raw}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  134 Moby Thesaurus words for "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, wretched