a. Gloomy and somber: Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult(John Millington Synge).
b. Providing no encouragement; depressing: a bleak prospect.
2. Cold and cutting; raw: bleak winds of the North Atlantic.
3. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren: the bleak, treeless regions of the high Andes.
[Middle English bleik, pale, from Old Norse bleikr, white; see bhel-1 in Indo-European roots.]
bleakly adv.
bleakness n.
bleak 2(blk)
n.pl.bleak or bleaks
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.
[Middle English bleke, probably alteration (influenced by bleke, pale) of *blay, from Old English blge.]
k)
ly adv.
ge.]