dreary

English

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɪəɹi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, mirror–nearer merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɪɹi/

  • Audio (US, mirror–nearer merger):

    (file)

• (US, without the mirror–nearer merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɪɚi/, /ˈdɹiɹi/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹiɹɪ/, /ˈdɹiɹe/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹiəɹi/
• (East Anglia, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɛːɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹi

Adjective

dreary (comparative drearier or more dreary, superlative dreariest or most dreary)

1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

   Synonyms: bleak, gloomy; see also Thesaurus:cheerless, Thesaurus:dim

   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...

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter V, in Frankenstein, volume 1:

     It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.

   • 1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 165:

     The train is booked to stop at Jiza for only three minutes, but more often than not twenty minutes or more are spent on shunting before it sets off again on what must be one of the most dreary journeys in the world.

2. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.

Derived terms

• drear
• drearihead
• drearihood
• drearily
• dreariment
• dreariness
• drearisome

Translations

drab

• Albanian: trishtë
• Bulgarian: тъжен (bg) (tǎžen), мрачен (bg) (mračen)
• Czech: šedivý (cs), pochmurný (cs), chmurný, ponurý (cs), depresivní
• Dutch: bleek (nl), lusteloos (nl)
• Esperanto: malgaja
• Finnish: ankea (fi), surkea (fi)
• French: terne (fr) m or f, insipide (fr) m or f, maussade (fr) m or f
• German: öde (de), trostlos (de), trüb (de), freudlos (de)
• Hungarian: komor (hu), rideg (hu), borús (hu), borongós (hu), bús (hu), búskomor (hu), bánatos (hu), búbánatos (hu), barátságtalan (hu), örömtelen (hu), (scenery) sivár (hu), kietlen (hu), kopár (hu)
• Icelandic: drungalegur (is)
• Irish: dearóil
• Italian: melanconico m, malinconico (it) m
• Japanese: 荒涼とした (kouryoutoshita), わびしい (ja) (wabishii)
• Māori: takeo
• Middle English: drery, dregh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dyster (no)

  Nynorsk: dyster

• Old English: wynleas
• Portuguese: melancólico (pt)
• Romanian: tern (ro), insipid (ro), mosad, trist (ro), melancolic (ro)
• Russian: мра́чный (ru) (mráčnyj), тоскли́вый (ru) (tosklívyj), печа́льный (ru) (pečálʹnyj), гру́стный (ru) (grústnyj), безотра́дный (ru) (bezotrádnyj), му́торный (ru) (mútornyj)
• Spanish: aburrido (es), triste (es)
• Swedish: trist (sv), dyster (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: آجی (acı) (of sounds)

Noun

dreary (plural drearies)

1. (rare) A dreary person or thing.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of H. G. Wells to this entry?)

   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.

   • 2018, Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang:

     I'm taking it all down. The trivialities. The ramblings. The drearies. The trites.

Anagrams

• Ardrey, Drayer, yarder, yarred, errday