bleak
adjective
- desolate (often, of hope)
noun
- species of fish
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /bliːk/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English bleke (also bleche, whence the English doublet bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English blǣc, blǣċ, blāc (“bleak, pale, pallid”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), all from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). Cognate with Dutch bleek (“pale, wan, pallid”), Low German blek (“pale”), German bleich (“pale, wan, sallow”), Danish bleg (“pale”), Swedish blek (“pale, pallid”), Norwegian Bokmål bleik, blek (“pale”), Norwegian Nynorsk bleik (“pale”), Faroese bleikur (“pale”), Icelandic bleikur (“pale, pink”).
- Without color; pale; pallid.
“When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.”
- Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
“a bleak and bare rock”
“a bleak, crater-pocked moonscape”
- Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
“Downtown Albany felt bleak that February after the divorce.”
“A bleak future is in store for you.”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English bleke (“small river fish, bleak, blay”), perhaps an alteration (due to Old English blǣc (“bright”) or Old Norse bleikja) of Old English blǣġe (“bleak, blay, gudgeon”); or perhaps from a diminutive of Middle English *bleye (“blay”), equivalent to blay + -ock or blay + -kin. See blay.
- A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.