| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bleak1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  bl k |
| ADJECTIVE: | Inflected forms: bleak·er, bleak·est
1a. Gloomy and somber: “Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult” (John Millington Synge). b. Providing no encouragement; depressing: a bleak prospect. 2. Cold and cutting; raw: bleak winds of the North Atlantic. 3. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren: the bleak, treeless regions of the high Andes. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bleik, pale, from Old Norse bleikr, white. See bhel-1 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | bleak ly —ADVERB
bleakness —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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