DREARY - Definition & Meaning for Kids
Meaning 1
Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)
causing dejection
Example: a blue day; the dark days of the war; a week of rainy depressing weather; a disconsolate winter landscape; the first dismal dispiriting days of November; a dark gloomy day; grim rainy weather
Meaning 2
Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)
lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise
Example: her drab personality; life was drab compared with the more exciting life style overseas; a series of dreary dinner parties
Synonyms
Sorry, Drear, Dismal, Dingy, Dreary
🌱 Word Origin (Etymology)
The word "dreary" comes from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews-. It started in Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz. Then it appeared in Old English drēoriġ. Later, people used it in Middle English drery. Many other languages have similar words:.
- Dutch: treurig
- Low German: trurig
- German: traurig
- Old Norse: dreyrigr
- Old English: drēor
- Old English: drysmian
🔗 Related Words
drear – A related word in the same word family.
-y – A related word in the same word family.
🧩 Fun Fact
Each language in this chain added phonetic changes that transformed the original sound.