- pronunciation:
- dri
ri
- features:
- Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
adjective |
| inflections: |
drearier, dreariest |
| definition: |
When something is dreary, it has no cheerful or bright feeling to it. A dreary day is cloudy and dark.
My mom thinks the gray walls in the kitchen make it look dreary. She wants to paint it yellow.- synonyms:
- gloomy
- antonyms:
- cheerful, scenic
- similar words:
- barren, sterile
|
| related words: |
cloudy, dark, dull |
| derivations: |
drearily (adv.), dreariness (n.) |
Dreary comes from an Old English word that originally meant "gory or bloody." In time, "dreary" came to mean "horrid." By the 1600s, its meaning had softened to "gloomy."