adjective
bleak
BLEEK/bliːk/
Harshly bare and without comfort or encouragement.
A bleak hillside rises beyond the last houses of the village.
Etymology
Bleikr meant “pale” or “whitish,” and bleak first carried that meaning in English. It later described bare, windswept places, then extended to the figurative sense “cheerless.”
In context
this youngster’s outlook is bleak. While a bison’s front end is well protected, its rump is not, so any further attempt to run away would simply play into the wolf’s jaws.
More examples
- The closure leaves workers facing a bleak future.
- We crossed the bleakest stretch of moor before sunset.
- The room looked bleak without furniture or curtains.
Forms
bleak · bleaker · bleakest