Dreary

3 definitions found

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

  Dreary \Drear"y\ (dr[=e]r"[y^]), a. [Compar. {Drearier}; superl.
     {Dreariest}.] [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dre['o]rig, sad; akin
     to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dre['o]san to fall, Goth.
     driusan. Cf. {Dross}, {Drear}, {Drizzle}, {Drowse}.]
     1. Sorrowful; distressful. [Obs.] " Dreary shrieks."
        --Spenser.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Exciting cheerless sensations, feelings, or associations;
        comfortless; dismal; gloomy. " Dreary shades." --Dryden.
        "The dreary ground." --Prior.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Full many a dreary anxious hour.      --Keble.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Johnson entered on his vocation in the most dreary
              part of that dreary interval which separated two
              ages of prosperity.                   --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  dreary
       adj 1: depressing in character or appearance; "drove through dingy
              streets"; "the dismal prison twilight"- Charles
              Dickens; "drab old buildings"; "a dreary mining town";
              "gloomy tenements"; "sorry routine that follows on the
              heels of death"- B.A.Williams [syn: {dingy}, {dismal},
               {drab}, {drear}, {gloomy}, {sorry}]
       2: lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise; "her drab
          personality"; "life was drab compared with the more
          exciting life style overseas"; "a series of dreary dinner
          parties" [syn: {drab}]
       [also: {dreariest}, {drearier}]

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

  228 Moby Thesaurus words for "dreary":
     Quaker-colored, acier, affecting, afflictive, apocalyptic, arid,
     ashen, ashy, bad, baleful, banausic, baneful, barren, bitter,
     black, blah, blank, bleak, bloodless, blue, bodeful, boding,
     boring, broken-record, canescent, characterless, cheerless,
     cinereous, cinerous, cold, colorless, comfortless, dapple,
     dapple-gray, dappled, dappled-gray, dark, dead, deplorable,
     depressed, depressing, depressive, dim, dingy, dire, discomforting,
     dismal, dismaying, dispiriting, distressful, distressing, doleful,
     dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, doomful, dove-colored, dove-gray,
     downcast, drab, draggy, drear, drearisome, dry, dryasdust, dull,
     dusty, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, everlasting, evil,
     evil-starred, fade, fateful, flat, foreboding, forlorn, funebrial,
     funereal, glaucescent, glaucous, gloomy, glum, grave, gray,
     gray-black, gray-brown, gray-colored, gray-drab, gray-green,
     gray-spotted, gray-toned, gray-white, grayed, grayish, grievous,
     grim, griseous, grizzle, grizzled, grizzly, harping, heavy, ho-hum,
     hollow, humdrum, ill, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened,
     ill-starred, inane, inauspicious, inexcitable, insipid, invariable,
     iron-gray, jejune, jog-trot, joyless, lamentable, lead-gray,
     leaden, lifeless, livid, long-winded, low-spirited, lowering,
     melancholy, menacing, miserable, monotone, monotonous, morose,
     mournful, mouse-colored, mouse-gray, mousy, moving,
     of evil portent, ominous, oppressive, ordinary, painful, pale,
     pallid, pathetic, pearl, pearl-gray, pearly, pedestrian, piteous,
     pitiable, plodding, poignant, pointless, poky, ponderous,
     portending, portentous, prolix, prosaic, regrettable, rueful,
     run-of-the-mill, sad, saddening, saturnine, sharp, silver,
     silver-gray, silvered, silvery, singsong, sinister, slate-colored,
     slaty, slow, smoke-gray, smoky, sober, solemn, somber, sombrous,
     sore, sorrowful, spiritless, steel-gray, steely, sterile, stiff,
     stodgy, stone-colored, stuffy, superficial, tasteless, taupe,
     tedious, threatening, tiresome, tiring, touching, treadmill,
     triste, uncomfortable, uneventful, unexciting, unfavorable,
     unfortunate, unhappy, uninteresting, unlively, unlucky,
     unpromising, unpropitious, untoward, unvarying, vapid, weariful,
     wearisome, weary, wearying, woebegone, woeful, wooden, wretched