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dreary

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drear⋅y

  [dreer-ee]
Use dreary in a Sentence
–adjective, drear⋅i⋅er, drear⋅i⋅est.
1. causing sadness or gloom.
2. dull; boring.
3. sorrowful; sad.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME drery, OE drēorig gory, cruel, sad, equiv. to drēor gore + -ig -y 1 ; akin to ON dreyrigr bloody, G traurig sad

Related forms:
drear⋅i⋅ly, adverb
drear⋅i⋅ness, noun
drear⋅i⋅some, adjective

Synonyms:
1. gloomy, dismal, drear, cheerless, depressing, comfortless. 2. tedious, monotonous, wearisome, tiresome.

Antonyms:
1. cheerful. 2. interesting.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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drea·ry   (drîr'ē)   
adj.   drea·ri·er, drea·ri·est

  1. Dismal; bleak.

  2. Boring; dull: dreary tasks.


[Middle English dreri, bloody, frightened, sad, from Old English drēorig, bloody, sad, from drēor, gore; see dhreu- in Indo-European roots.]
drea'ri·ly adv., drea'ri·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

dreary 
O.E. dreorig "sorrowful," originally "cruel, bloody," from dreor "gore, blood," from (ge)dreosan (pp. droren) "fall, decline, fail," from W.Gmc. *dreuzas (cf. O.N. dreyrigr "gory, bloody," and more remotely, Ger. traurig "sad, sorrowful"). The word has lost its original sense of "dripping blood." Sense of "dismal, gloomy" first recorded 1667 in "Paradise Lost," but O.E. had a related verb drysmian "become gloomy."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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