bleak

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“
Just as bleak are the projections for consumption tax revenue for 2009, which is estimated to drop 11 percent.

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Definitions (18)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. adjective Gloomy and somber: "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult” (John Millington Synge).
  2. adjective Providing no encouragement; depressing: a bleak prospect.
  3. adjective Cold and cutting; raw: bleak winds of the North Atlantic.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • A clawed hand over my mouth stopped me screaming and I gagged as the bleak, ancient depths of the Grey closed in. —  Kat Richardson - Greywalker 1 - Greywalker (v2.0)
  • The outlook for those children whose parents do split up is bleak, according to the report.
  • "The future is bleak, bleak, bleak," a friend of the singer told —  StyleCritics
  • While the figures were bleak, analysts had been bracing for even worse reports. —  Reflector - Latest Headlines from The Daily Reflector
  • BERLIN: The German economy has probably slipped into its first recession in more than five years and the prospects for a pickup next year are bleak, a deputy German economy minister said on Wednesday. —  International Herald Tribune - World News, Analysis, and Global Opinions
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

desolate ·  barren ·  grim ·  arid ·  stark ·  icy ·  dim ·  bare ·  distant ·  cheerless ·  sombre ·  northern

Used in the same contextWord Family

bleak:   bleaker
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English bleik, pale, from Old Norse bleikr, white; see bhel-1 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English bleke, probably alteration (influenced by bleke, pale) of *blay, from Old English blǣge.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Also assibilated bleach (obsolete), dial. blake, q. v.; from Middle English bleke (assibilated bleche) (also bleike, prob. due to Icelandic), earlier blake, blak (i. e., blāk, different from blăk, black, though to some extent confused with it), pale, wan, from Anglo-Saxon blāc (variant blǣc, whence prob. ult. English bleach, a., q. v.), pale, wan, also bright, shining (= Old Saxon blēk, pale, shining, = Dutch bleek = Middle Low German blēk, Low German blek = Old High German bleih, Middle High German G. bleich = Icelandic bleikr = Swedish blek = Danish bleg, pale, wan), from blīcan (preterit blāc, past participle blicen), shine, = Old Saxon blīkan = OFries. blīka, shine, = Dutch blijken (preterit bleek), appear, = Icelandic blīkja, blīka, shine, = Old High German blīhhan, shine (Middle High German blīcan, German bleichen, grow pale, mixed with weak verb bleichen, bleach: see bleach, v.), akin to Sanskrit √ bhrāj, shine, and perhaps to Greek φλέγειν, burn, blaze, φλόξ, flame, Latinflamma, flame, fulgere, shine, etc.: see flame, fulgent, phlegm, phlox, etc. Related English words are blank, blink, bleach, perhaps black, and bright.
  2. from bleak, a.; variant of bleach.
  3. Early modern English bleke, dial. blick; = Icelandic bleikja = Old High German bleicha, Middle High German blicke; from the adjective bleak (Icelandic bleikr, Old High German bleih), from the pale color of its scales (see bleak). The synonymous term blay, from Anglo-Saxon blǣge = Dutch blei = German bleihe, is not directly connected with bleak.
  4. Var. of bleach and black, v.
 

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