Link Centre Dictionary

drear

UK/dɹɪə/ US/dɹɪɚ/ uncommon literary obsolete

adjective

1.

depressing in character or appearance

  • “drove through dingy streets”
  • “the dismal prison twilight” Charles Dickens
  • “drab old buildings”
  • “a dreary mining town”
  • “gloomy tenements”
  • “sorry routine that follows on the heels of death” B.A.Williams

Origin

Back-formation from dreary. Compare greed.

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.