Search Result for "bleak": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (3)

1. offering little or no hope;
- Example: "the future looked black"
- Example: "prospects were bleak"
- Example: "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge
- Example: "took a dim view of things"
[syn: black, bleak, dim]

2. providing no shelter or sustenance;
- Example: "bare rocky hills"
- Example: "barren lands"
- Example: "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"
- Example: "the desolate surface of the moon"
- Example: "a stark landscape"
[syn: bare, barren, bleak, desolate, stark]

3. unpleasantly cold and damp;
- Example: "bleak winds of the North Atlantic"
[syn: bleak, cutting, raw]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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. [1913 Webster] 2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds. [1913 Webster] Wastes too bleak to rear The common growth of earth, the foodful ear. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster] At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster] 3. Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast. [1913 Webster] -- Bleak"ish, a. -- Bleak"ly, adv. -- Bleak"ness, n. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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, bleak, 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, bleak, desolate, stark] 3: unpleasantly cold and damp; "bleak winds of the North Atlantic" [syn: bleak, cutting, raw]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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