dreary
[dreer-ee]
||
adjective, drear·i·er, drear·i·est.
causing sadness or gloom.
dull; boring.
sorrowful; sad.
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Nearby words
- dreamwork,
- dreamy,
- dreamy state,
- drear,
- dreariness,
- dreck,
- drecksill,
- dred scott decision,
- dredge,
- dredge up
Origin of dreary
before 900; Middle English drery, Old English drēorig gory, cruel, sad, equivalent to drēor gore + -ig -y1; akin to Old Norse dreyrigr bloody, German traurig sad
SYNONYMS FOR dreary
1. gloomy, dismal, drear, cheerless, depressing, comfortless. 2. tedious, monotonous, wearisome, tiresome.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for drearily
dreary
adjective drearier or dreariest
Also (literary): drear
Word Origin for dreary
Old English drēorig gory; related to Old High German trūreg sad
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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dreary
Old English dreorig "sad, sorrowful," originally "cruel, bloody, blood-stained," from dreor "gore, blood," from (ge)dreosan (past participle droren) "fall, decline, fail," from West Germanic *dreuzas (cf. Old Norse dreyrigr "gory, bloody," and more remotely, German traurig "sad, sorrowful"), from PIE root *dhreu- "to fall, flow, drip, droop" (see drip (v.)).
The word has lost its original sense of "dripping blood." Sense of "dismal, gloomy" first recorded 1667 in "Paradise Lost," but Old English had a related verb drysmian "become gloomy."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper