bleak Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite offering little or no hope
    dim; black.
    • the future looked black
    • prospects were bleak
    • Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge
    • took a dim view of things
  2. adjective satellite providing no shelter or sustenance
    barren; desolate; bare; stark.
    • bare rocky hills
    • barren lands
    • the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes
    • the desolate surface of the moon
    • a stark landscape
  3. adjective satellite unpleasantly cold and damp
    raw; cutting.
    • bleak winds of the North Atlantic

WordNet

Bleak adjective
Etymology
OE. blac, bleyke, bleche, AS. blac, blc, pale, wan; akin to Icel. bleikr, Sw. blek, Dan. bleg, OS. blk, D. bleek, OHG. pleih, G. bleich; all from the root of AS. blican to shine; akin to OHG. blichen to shine; cf. L. flagrare to burn, Gr. to burn, shine, Skr. bhraj to shine, and E. flame. 98. Cf. Bleach, Blink, Flame.
Definitions
  1. Without color; pale; pallid. Obs.
    When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead. Foxe.
  2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
    Wastes too bleak to rear The common growth of earth, the foodful ear. Wordsworth.
    At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach. Longfellow.
  3. Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast. -- Bleak"ish, a. -- Bleak"ly, adv. -- Bleak"ness, n.
Bleak noun
Etymology
From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidæ; the blay. Written also blick. ✍ The silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is used in the manufacture of artificial pearls. Baird.

Webster 1913