dreary

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It was the reward he had promised her for what he called her dreary, mechanical job of copying and copying Barbara noticed the curious, exalted expression of his face as he sat up beside her in the car, looking noble.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Dismal; bleak.
  2. adjective Boring; dull: dreary tasks.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • Life at the gulch was very desolate and dreary, and such a bright glad presence as the girl's would alleviate the monotony and disperse the gloom For the following week both men were busy preparing Stephen's cabin for her reception and trying to impart to it a bridal appearance. —  A Girl of the Klondike
  • The way was dark and sometimes dreary, and Eline felt like one awakened from a beautiful dream before it was ended Through the pine forests, over mountains, in deep valleys, and by mighty streams they traveled. —  The Strange Little Girl A Story for Children
  • Mr. Hill took them over the line--a dreary waste of slashings, then a wide expanse of prairie broken now and again by scrub-oak and hazel-groves; deep gullies here and there--swamps, sloughs and ponds, with assets of brant, wild geese, ducks and sand-hill cranes The road was in bad shape--the equipment worse. —  Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 11 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen
  • Darkness came down over the dreary waste, making it appear still more desolate. —  In the Wilds of Africa
  • The only creature which can journey comfortably over the dreary waste of the Sa-ha´ra is the camel, whose stomach is made in a peculiar way, so that it can drink a large quantity of water at a time, and store it up for future use Undaunted by fatigue or danger, Alexander pressed onward. —  The Story of the Greeks
 

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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

gloomy ·  desolate ·  dismal ·  bleak ·  dull ·  endless ·  tedious ·  miserable ·  dim

Used in the same contextWord Family

dreary:   drearier
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 (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English dreri, bloody, frightened, sad, from Old English drēorig, bloody, sad, from drēor, gore; see dhreu- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also drearie, drery, drerie; from Middle English drery, dreri, dreori, drury, from Anglo-Saxon dreórig, sad, mournful. Anglo-Saxon dreórig also means bloody, gory, = Old Saxon drórag = Icelandic dreyrigr = Middle High German trōric, bloody, from Anglo-Saxon dreór = Old Saxon drōr = Icelandic dreyri, dröri = Middle High German trör, blood, gore, from Anglo-Saxon dreósan (=Gothic (Moesogothic) driusan, etc.), fall, whence ult. English dross and drizzle, q. v. But the sense ‘sad’ is prob. reached from another direction: Old High German *trūrag, trūreg, Middle High German trūrec, German traurig, whence prob. Low German trūrig, Dutch treurig (with HG. t), sad, mournful, connected with Old High German trūrēn, cast down the eyes, mourn, Middle High German trūren, German trauern, mourn, orig. cause to fall, causative of the orig. verb, Goth, driusan, etc., above.
 

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/ˈdriri/
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