English

Alternative forms

• dree, dreigh

Adjective

dreich ‎(comparative more dreich, superlative most dreich)

1. (Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless, dreary.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 243:

     It looked a dreich, cold place as you rode by at night, near as lonesome as the old Mill was, and not near as handy.

   • 2002, Glasgow's ambassadors receive a dreich welcome in Havana — title of article in The Scotsman, 14 Nov 2002
   • 2004, but driving home at this dreich hour and at the end of a difficult shift, she found the ectoplasmic fog unnerving — Susan Hill, The Various Haunts of Men (2004) page 4.
   • 2008 used in BBC Radio 4 Weather forecast as interchangeable with "dreary/dismal" 4th Nov 2008 12:57

Related terms

• dree

Scots

Etymology

From Old English *drēoh. Alternatively from Britonnic, cognate with "Drycin" also spelt "Drychin" meaning "Foul Weather".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /driːç/

Adjective

dreich ‎(comparative mair dreich, superlative maist dreich)

1. persistent, continuous, relentless
2. slow, tardy
3. dismal, dowie, dreary, bleak
   • 2000, Matthew Fitt, But n Ben A-Go-Go, Luath 2000, p.132:

     The dreich inhuman blue on Nadia's lang-wheesht thocht-screen fizzed intae life.

4. tedious, wearisome, drawn-out
5. reluctant, tight-fisted, driving a hard bargain

Derived terms

• dreichly
• deid dreich
• dreich in the draw