drear
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of drear
First recorded in 1620–30; back formation from dreary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The design scheme of the production can be summed up as fluorescent drear, presumably to convey the grimness of Jamie’s school.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 24, 2022
It’s like Britain’s last kitchen-sink movie, a film that focuses on pure domestic drear.
From The Guardian • Jan. 22, 2020
In the gusty drear of the morning and then the breezy sunshine of midday amid the rude crosswinds near the Irish Sea, they shot their 65s.
From Washington Post • Jul. 20, 2017
Hope’s mother brought up seven boys in drear, impoverished conditions.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 10, 2014
Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o’clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
