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Webster 1913 Edition

Bleak

Bleak

(blēk)
,
Adj.
[OE.
blac
,
bleyke
,
bleche
, AS.
blāc
,
blǣc
, pale, wan; akin to Icel.
bleikr
, Sw.
blek
, Dan.
bleg
, OS.
blēk
, D.
bleek
, OHG.
pleih
, G.
bleich
; all from the root of AS.
blīcan
to shine; akin to OHG.
blīchen
to shine; cf. L.
flagrare
to burn, Gr.
φλέγειν
to burn, shine, Skr.
bhrāj
to shine, and E.
flame
. √98. Cf.
Bleach
,
Blink
,
Flame
.]
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
,
Adj.
–
Bleak′ly
,
adv.
–
Bleak′ness
,
Noun.

Bleak

,
Noun.
[From
Bleak
,
Adj.
, cf.
Blay
.]
(Zool.)
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 1828 Edition

Bleak

BLEAK

,
Adj.
1.
Pale. [But not often used in this sense, in America, as far as my observations extend.]
2.
Open; vacant; exposed to a free current of air; as a bleak hill or shore. This is the true sense of the word; hence cold and cheerless. A bleak wind is not so named merely from its coldness, but from its blowing without interruption, on a wide waste;at least this is the sense in America. So in Addison. 'Her desolation presents us with nothing but bleak and barren prospects.'

BLEAK

,
Noun.
A small river fish, five or six inches long, so named from its whiteness. It belongs to the genus Cyprinus,and is known to the Londoners by the name of white bait. It is called also by contraction blay.

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