drear
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of drear
First recorded in 1620–30; back formation from dreary
Vocabulary lists containing drear
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 day is drear, the music ominous — and with good reason.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
I imagined the Lonely Mountains isolated by their own vastness and strangeness, their slow, cold hearts filled with a drear and incurable loneliness.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 22, 2018
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
Elévée ran off to play with Pascal, rather than be trapped into this drear exercise.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
