drear

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /drɪr/ UK /drɪə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
dreary, gloomy, or cheerless (chiefly poetic)

The drear November sky pressed low over the moor.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · dreary, gloomy, or... dreary gloomy cheerless bleak dismal desolate

Opposites

cheerful bright joyful

Word family

Derived forms dreary drearily dreariness

Related forms dreary

Etymology

A poetic back-formation from 'dreary', from Old English 'drēorig' ('bloody, sad, gloomy'), from 'drēor' ('gore, blood'), from the root meaning 'to fall, drip'.

drēorig Old English drēor Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives Register & Style

External links

# drear

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /drɪr/
**IPA (UK):** /drɪə/

## Meanings
1. dreary, gloomy, or cheerless (chiefly poetic)

## Examples
- The drear November sky pressed low over the moor.

## Synonyms
- dreary
- gloomy
- cheerless
- bleak
- dismal
- desolate

## Antonyms
- cheerful
- bright
- joyful

## Derived Forms
- dreary
- drearily
- dreariness

## Related Forms
- dreary

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: drēorig
- Root: drēor

## Etymology
A poetic back-formation from 'dreary', from Old English 'drēorig' ('bloody, sad, gloomy'), from 'drēor' ('gore, blood'), from the root meaning 'to fall, drip'.

## AI Etymology
Drear is a poetic back-formation from 'dreary', from Old English 'drēorig' ('bloody, sad, gloomy'), from 'drēor' ('gore, blood'), from the root meaning 'to fall, drip'. Important recorded forms include drēorig (Old English) and drēor (Old English). The current sense covers dreary, gloomy, or cheerless (chiefly poetic). The wider family includes derived forms such as dreary, drearily, and dreariness and related words such as dreary.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives
- Register & Style

markdown