[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

bleak \bleak\ bl=ek, a. oe. blac, bleyke, bleche, as.
   bl=ac, bl=aec, pale, wan; akin to icel. bleikr, sw. blek,
   dan. bleg, os. bl=ek, d. bleek, ohg. pleih, g. bleich; all
   from the root of as. blimaccan to shine; akin to ohg.
   blimacchen to shine; cf. l. flagrare to burn, gr. fle`gein
   to burn, shine, skr. bhr=aj to shine, and e. flame.
   root98. cf. bleach, blink, flame.
   1. without color; pale; pallid. obs.
      1913 webster

            when she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as
            one that were laid out dead.          --foxe.
      1913 webster

   2. desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
      1913 webster

            wastes too bleak to rear
            the common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
                                                  --wordsworth.
      1913 webster

            at daybreak, on the bleak sea beach.  --longfellow.
      1913 webster

   3. cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast.
      1913 webster -- bleak"ish, a. -- bleak"ly, adv. --
      bleak"ness, n.
      1913 webster
see also:
bleach blink flame bleak"ish bleak"ly bleak"ness 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

bleak \bleak\, n. from bleak, a., cf. blay. zool.
   a small european river fish leuciscus alburnus, of the
   family cyprinidae; the blay. written also blick.
   1913 webster

   note: the silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is
         used in the manufacture of artificial pearls. --baird.
         1913 webster
see also:
bleak blay leuciscus alburnus blick 

[3] : WordNet (r) 2.0

bleak
     adj 1: offering little or no hope; "the future looked black";
            "prospects were bleak"; "life in the aran islands has
            always been bleak and difficult"- j.m.synge; "took a
            dim view of things" syn: black, dim
     2: providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills";
        "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high
        andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark
        landscape" syn: bare, barren, desolate, stark
     3: unpleasantly cold and damp; "bleak winds of the north
        atlantic" syn: cutting, raw
see also:
black dim bare barren desolate stark 
cutting raw 

[4] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

134 moby thesaurus words for "bleak":
   siberian, affecting, afflictive, affording no hope, algid,
   apathetic, arctic, austere, bare, barren, below zero, biting,
   bitter, bitterly cold, black, blown, boreal, brisk, brumal,
   cheerless, chilly, cold, cold as charity, cold as death,
   cold as ice, cold as marble, comfortless, crisp, cutting, dark,
   deplorable, depressing, depressive, desolate, despairing,
   desperate, despondent, discomforting, disconsolate, disheartening,
   dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, dolorific,
   dolorogenic, dolorous, dour, drear, drearisome, dreary, exposed,
   forlorn, freezing, freezing cold, frigid, funebrial, funereal,
   gelid, glacial, gloomy, grave, gray, grievous, grim, hard, harsh,
   hibernal, hiemal, hopeless, hyperborean, ice-cold, ice-encrusted,
   icelike, icy, in despair, inclement, joyless, keen, lamentable,
   melancholy, mournful, moving, nipping, nippy, numbing, oppressive,
   painful, pathetic, penetrating, piercing, pinching, piteous,
   pitiable, poignant, raw, regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad,
   saddening, saturnine, severe, sharp, sleety, slushy, snappy,
   solemn, somber, sombrous, sore, sorrowful, stone-cold, stringent,
   subzero, supercooled, touching, triste, uncomfortable, unhappy,
   unhopeful, weariful, wearisome, weary, windblown, windswept,
   winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry, without hope, woebegone,
   woeful, wretched

Bleak >> B Words
Bleak, definition of term: Bleak
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