Dreich

//dɹiːk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A tedious or troublesome task; also, the most tedious or troublesome part of a task. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, countable
  2. 2
    Bleakness, gloom; specifically, gloomy (cold, overcast, rainy, etc.) weather. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, uncountable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Extending for a long distance or time, especially when tedious or wearisome; long-drawn-out, protracted; also, of speech or writing: unnecessarily verbose; long-winded. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "So Alec showed her the letter, 'twas long and dreich and went on and on; […]"

  2. 2
    Not enjoyable or interesting; boring, dull. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "VVhen thou an' I vvere young an' ſkiegh, / An' ſtable-meals at Fairs vvere driegh, / Hovv thou vvad prance, an' ſnore, an' ſkriegh, / An' tak the road!"

  3. 3
    Bleak, cheerless, dismal, dreary, miserable. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "But he's lying i' such dree poverty,—and niver a friend to go near him,—niver a person to speak a kind word t' him."

  4. 4
    suitably serious or solemn Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  5. 5
    of a person: patient, stoic, tolerant, resolute Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland
Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    Slow, sluggish; specifically, of a person: tending to delay or procrastinate (especially when paying for something). Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "What think ye o' yon bonny hill yonder, lifting its brow to the moon? […] [M]aybe we will win there the night yet, God sain us, though our minny [a horse] here's rather driegh in the upgang."

  2. 7
    Of a person: having a dejected or serious appearance or mood; dour, gloomy, moody, morose, sullen. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "There they are that were capering on their prancing nags four days since, and they are now ganging as driegh and sober as oursells the day."

  3. 8
    Of a task: laborious, tedious, troublesome; hence, needing concentration to understand; intricate. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "Right above your head some thing towered up with branching arms in the flow of the lights; and you saw that it was a cross of stone, overlaid with curlecues, strange, dreich signs, like the banners of the Roman robbers of men whom you'd preached against in Zion last night."

  4. 9
    Chiefly of rain: without pause or stop; continuous, incessant. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "So, after two hours' running downhill, we came out in the level valley at Glashütte. It was raining now, a thick dree rain."

  5. 10
    Of weather: dreary, gloomy (cold, overcast, rainy, etc.). Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland

    "To be sure, t' winter's been a dree season, and thou'rt, maybe, in the right on't to make a late start."

  6. 11
    Of a person: negotiating forcefully; driving a hard bargain. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, obsolete
  7. 12
    Of a place (especially a hill or mountain): difficult to get through or reach; inaccessible. Midlands, North, Northern-England, Northern-Ireland, Scotland, obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
languidploddingsteadysullentediousamaranthine

Example

More examples

"And in the night he would wander the forest through, or bathe his fevered limbs in dark streams; and when hunger fell on him he followed the chase, and so swift of foot he grew and so strong of his hands that the wild boar, the wolf, and deer found him a dreich blow-dealer."

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Scots dreich (“hard to bear, dreary, tedious, wearisome; interminable, long-winded; dull, uninteresting; slow, tardy; doleful, gloomy; baffling, difficult; difficult to reach, inaccessible”), from Middle English dregh, dri, drie (“burdensome; depressing, dismal; large, tall; lasting, long; long-suffering, patient; tedious; of blows: hard, heavy; of the face: unchanging, unmoved; of a person: strong, valorous”) [and other forms], from Old English *drēog, drēoh (“earnest; fit; sober”), and then probably partly: * shortened from Old English ġedrēog (“calm, quiet; sober; fit, suitable”, adjective), from ġe- (prefix forming adjectives of association or similarity) + Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (“enduring, lasting”) (from *dreuganą (“to serve, be a retainer”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to serve one’s tribe; loyal”)); and * influenced by Old Norse drjúgr (“sufficient; excessive, very; great; strong”), from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (see above). The noun is probably partly derived: * from the adjective; and * borrowed from Scots dreich (“dreariness, gloom”) (rare), probably from Middle English dri, drie (“annoyance, trouble; grief; period of time”) [and other forms], possibly from dri, drie (adjective) (see above). (Compare Old English ġedrēog (“seemliness; seriousness, sobriety; something appropriate or required”, noun), which did not survive into Middle English.) Cognates * German Low German drēg, drēge * Icelandic drjúgur (“ample; heavy, substantial; long”) * North Frisian drech * Old Danish drygh (modern Danish drøj (“heavy; solid, tough”)) * Old Swedish drygher (modern Swedish dryg (“ample, liberal; hard; large; lasting”)) * Saterland Frisian drjooch * Scots dreich * West Frisian dreech, drege (“extensive; long-lasting”)

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