“Drear” is an old-fashioned word that means something dismal, gloomy, sad, or cheerless, often with a sense of lonely bleakness.

Basic meaning

  • As an adjective , “drear” describes something gloomy, bleak, or depressing in mood or appearance, similar to “dreary.”
  • As a noun (now rare), it can mean sadness, dread, or dismalness itself.

Usage and tone

  • The word is mostly poetic or literary today, and you see it in older texts or stylized writing rather than everyday speech.
  • Common synonyms include bleak, dismal, cheerless, and uncheerful, all suggesting an atmosphere that feels emotionally or visually heavy.

Example contexts

  • “A drear winter landscape” suggests a cold, empty, grey scene that feels emotionally heavy, not just physically dark.
  • In older dictionaries it is glossed as “dismal; gloomy with solitude,” emphasizing both the gloom and a feeling of isolation.

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