drear

[dreer]

adjective

Literary.

1. dreary.

Word History and Origins

Origin of drear¹

First recorded in 1620–30; back formation from dreary

Example Sentences

“For largely dramatic roles, I’ve long cast actors with comic chops; they know how to make emotions real but without drear,” the director said in an email.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The design scheme of the production can be summed up as fluorescent drear, presumably to convey the grimness of Jamie’s school.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o’clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight.

Read more on Literature

It’s like Britain’s last kitchen-sink movie, a film that focuses on pure domestic drear.

Read more on The Guardian

I imagined the Lonely Mountains isolated by their own vastness and strangeness, their slow, cold hearts filled with a drear and incurable loneliness.

Read more on The Guardian

Related Words

• black 
• cheerless 
• dark 
• dismal 
• grim 
• hopeless 
• sad