dreary

CEFRC1

/ˈdɹɪəɹi/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Dull, sad, and lacking excitement.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    A dreary person or thing.

Examples

  • I've got to go to another dreary meeting tomorrow.

  • What makes life dreary is the want of motivation.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈdɹiɹe/
  • /ˈdɹiɹi/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Grievous, dire; appalling.

  2. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

More examples

In context

  • It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.

  • Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...

  • In the glow of this project Steele manages to forget altogether the parade of donnish and scholastic drearies, the barricades of schoolbooks, texts, examinations with which he has dealt so faithfully.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The gray sky and cold rain made the whole day feel blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear + -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English drēor (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).