dreary

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear +‎ -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English drēor (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

dreary (comparative drearier or more dreary, superlative dreariest or most dreary)

  1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
    It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.
    Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...
    • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter V, in Frankenstein, volume 1:
      It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.
  2. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.

Derived terms[edit]

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