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more about bleak
bleak |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Bleak \Bleak\, n. [From {Bleak}, a., cf {Blay}.] (Zo["o]l.) A small European river fish ({Leuciscus alburnus}), of the family Cyprinid[ae]; the blay. [Written also {blick}.] Note: The silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is used in the manufacture of artificial pearls. --Baird. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Bleak \Bleak\, a. [OE. blac, bleyke bleche, AS bl[=a]c, bl?c, pale, wan; akin to Icel. bleikr Sw blek, Dan. bleg, OS bl?k, D. bleek, OHG. pleih G. bleich; all from the root of AS bl[=i]can to shine; akin to OHG. bl[=i]chen to shine; cf L. flagrare to burn, Gr ? to burn, shine, Skr. bhr[=a]j 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}, a. -- {Bleak"ly}, adv -- {Bleak"ness}, n. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: bleak adj 1: offering little or no hope; "the future looked black"; "prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a dim view of things" [syn: {black}, {dim}] 2: providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape" [syn: {bare}, {barren}, {desolate}, {stark}] 3: unpleasantly cold and damp; "bleak winds of the North Atlantic" [syn: {cutting}, {raw}]
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