bleak

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Gloomy and somber: "Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult” ( John Millington Synge).
2. adj. Providing no encouragement; depressing: a bleak prospect.
3. adj. Cold and cutting; raw: bleak winds of the North Atlantic.
4. adj. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren: the bleak, treeless regions of the high Andes.
5. n. A small European freshwater fish of the genus Alburnus that is related to the carp and has silvery scales used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pale; pallid; wan; of a sickly hue.
2. Exposed to cold and winds; desolate; bare of vegetation.
3. Cheerless; dreary.
4. Cold; chill; piercing; desolating.
5. To make white or pale; bleach.
6. To become white or pale.
7. n. An English name of a small cyprinoid fish, Alburnus lucidus. Other forms of the name are bleik, blick. Also called blay.
8. To blacken; darken.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Without color; pale; pallid.
2. adj. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
3. adj. Cold; cheerless.
4. n. A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae; the blay.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Without color; pale; pallid.
2. adj. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
3. adj. Cold and cutting; cheerless.
4. n. A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidæ; the blay.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. offering little or no hope
2. adj. unpleasantly cold and damp
3. adj. providing no shelter or sustenance