bleak 1. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

bleak¹

PRONUNCIATION:	blk
ADJECTIVE:	Inflected forms: bleak·er, bleak·est 1a. 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.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English bleik, pale, from Old Norse bleikr, white. See bhel-¹ in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	bleakly —ADVERB bleakness —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.