dreary
Americanadjective
-
causing sadness or gloom.
- Synonyms:
- comfortless, depressing, cheerless, drear, dismal, gloomy
- Antonyms:
- cheerful
-
dull; boring.
- Synonyms:
- tiresome, wearisome, monotonous, tedious
- Antonyms:
- interesting
-
sorrowful; sad.
adjective
-
sad or dull; dismal
-
wearying; boring
-
archaic miserable
Other Word Forms
- drearily adverb
- dreariness noun
- drearisome adjective
Etymology
Origin of dreary
before 900; Middle English drery, Old English drēorig gory, cruel, sad, equivalent to drēor gore + -ig -y 1; akin to Old Norse dreyrigr bloody, German traurig sad
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
From the start, Maggie hated dreary Hydesville, “you Cant think of how Lonesome it is out here …” The girls had few friends their age.
From Literature
Clara Davis, an influential pediatrician, taught that children possessed innate wisdom, and thus their preferences and cravings were a better guide to what they should eat than the dreary and tyrannical “dosage method.”
"I think a lot of American horror comics are quite dreary in terms of their aesthetic," Walsh said.
From Barron's
On a serious note, this column promised news of progress amid D.C.’s dreary winter of disappointing local governance.
On the dreary fall day the first snow fell in Toronto, for example, it was 78 degrees and sunny in the Mexican capital.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
