Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Dismal; bleak.
  • adjective Boring; dull.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sorrowful; sad.
  • Lonesomely dismal or gloomy; exciting a feeling of desolation, sadness, or gloom.
  • Hence Exciting a feeling of tedium or ennui; tiresomely monotonous: as, a dreary book.
  • Synonyms and Cheerless, comfortless, drear, dark. Tedious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Sorrowful; distressful.
  • adjective Exciting cheerless sensations, feelings, or associations; comfortless; dismal; gloomy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Grievous, dire; appalling.
  • adjective Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing dejection
  • adjective lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dreri, bloody, frightened, sad, from Old English drēorig, bloody, sad, from drēor, gore; see dhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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"), German traurig ("sad, sorrowful, mournful"), Old Norse dreyrigr ("bloody"). Related to Old English drēor ("blood, falling blood"), Old English drysmian ("to become gloomy").

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Examples

  • He called to tell me he had decided that he would rather begin his stay at the clinic in Switzerland and attend the music conservatory during the holidays than remain at the Clairborne mansion for what he called another dreary Christmas.

    Pearl in The Mist V.C.Andrews® 1994

  • He called to tell me he had decided that he would rather begin his stay at the clinic in Switzerland and attend the music conservatory during the holidays than remain at the Clairborne mansion for what he called another dreary Christmas.

    Pearl in The Mist V.C.Andrews® 1994

  • It was the reward he had promised her for what he called her dreary, mechanical job of copying and copying.

    Mr. Waddington of Wyck May Sinclair 1904

  • "It is what I call a dreary, dismal-looking town," said Miles to

    Blue Lights Hot Work in the Soudan 1859

  • Her use of the word "dreary" is a clever utilization of a subjective adjective (and a very Wordsworthian one).

    Wordsworth, the _Lyrical Ballads_, and Literary and Social Reform in Nineteenth Century America 1999

  • When we were packing up to leave last week I had occasion to re-fondle the Fyberspates yarn in dreary olive green which I had laid out to take to Alyth to donate to charity.

    Archive 2009-09-01 Jean 2009

  • After a few months in dreary England, Alfred Tayler went to the Empire Exhibition and was seduced by the thought of farming in Southern Rhodesia.

    On Doris Lessing « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • All things considered, it could be worse, but all of the grey and the dreary is sort of sapping my motivation.

    » Smiling in the Rain Strocel.com 2010

  • When we were packing up to leave last week I had occasion to re-fondle the Fyberspates yarn in dreary olive green which I had laid out to take to Alyth to donate to charity.

    Jean's Knitting Jean 2009

  • The restaurant and night-life industry may be buzzing downtown, but some of the biggest fireworks take place in dreary meeting rooms where tempers flare, tears are shed and the back and forth can stretch on for up to eight hours.

    Clubs, Eateries Target Local Boards Sumathi Reddy 2010

Comments

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  • It's a dark and dreary night

    Seems like nothing's going right

    Won't you tell me honey how can I go on here without you?

    ("Ring Ring", by ABBA)

    May 19, 2008