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Webster 1913 Edition

Dreary

Drear′y

(drēr′y̆)
,
Adj.
[
Com
par.
Drearier
;
sup
erl.
Dreariest
.]
[OE.
dreori
,
dreri
, AS.
dreórig
, sad; akin to G.
traurig
, and prob. to AS.
dreósan
to fall, Goth.
driusan
. Cf.
Dross
,
Drear
,
Drizzle
,
Drowse
.]
1.
Sorrowful; distressful.
[Obs.]
“ Dreary shrieks.”
Spenser.
2.
Exciting cheerless sensations, feelings, or associations; comfortless; dismal; gloomy.
“ Dreary shades.”
Dryden.
“The dreary ground.”
Prior.
Full many a
dreary
anxious hour.
Keble.
Johnson entered on his vocation in the most
dreary
part of that
dreary
interval which separated two ages of prosperity.
Macaulay.

Webster 1828 Edition

Dreary

DREARY

,
Adj.
1.
Dismal; gloomy; as a dreary waste; dreary shades. This word implies both solitude and gloom.
2.
Sorrowful; distressing; as dreary shrieks.

Definition 2024

dreary

dreary

English

Adjective

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

  1. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.
  2. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
    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, Frankenstein, Volume 1, Chapter V:
      It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.

Translations

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ ‎(“dreary, sad, sorrowful, mournful, pensive, causing grief, cruel, horrid, grievous, bloody, blood-stained, gory, glorious”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz ‎(“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreus- ‎(“to break, break off, crumble”). 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

  • Rhymes: -ɪəri

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