Drear

//dɹɪə// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Gloom; sadness. obsolete
Adjective
  1. 1
    Dreary. literary, poetic

    "Earth raised up her head From the darkness dread and drear,"

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing dejection wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
blackbleakbluecheerlesscoldcomfortless

Example

More examples

"Uprose the image of my father dear, / as there I see the monarch, bathed in blood, / like him in prowess and in age his peer. / Uprose Creusa, desolate and drear, / Iulus' peril, and a plundered home."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Shortening of dreary.

Etymology 2

Back-formation from dreary. Compare greed.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.