FreeScrabbleDictionary

dreary

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
9
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈdɹɪəɹi/
See all 8 pronunciations
/ˈdɹɪəɹi/ · /ˈdɹɪɹi/ · /ˈdɹɪɚi/ (US) · /ˈdɹiɹi/ (US) · /ˈdɹiɹɪ/ · /ˈdɹiɹe/ · /ˈdɹiəɹi/ · /ˈdɹɛːɹi/

Definition of dreary

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
    “It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.”
    “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...”
    “It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.”
    “The train is booked to stop at Jiza for only three minutes, but more often than not twenty minutes or more are spent on shunting before it sets off again on what must be one of the most dreary journeys in the world.”
See all 3 definitions

adj

  1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.
    “It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.”
    “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...”
    “It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils.”
    “The train is booked to stop at Jiza for only three minutes, but more often than not twenty minutes or more are spent on shunting before it sets off again on what must be one of the most dreary journeys in the world.”
  2. (obsolete)Grievous, dire; appalling.

noun

  1. (rare)A dreary person or thing.
    “In the glow of this project Steele manages to forget altogether the parade of donnish and scholastic drearies, the barricades of schoolbooks, texts, examinations with which he has dealt so faithfully.”
    “I'm taking it all down. The trivialities. The ramblings. The drearies. The trites.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear + -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig…

See full etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English drēoriġ (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear + -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English drēor (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

Anagrams of dreary

5 plays · some not in Scrabble

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Words you can make from dreary

52 playable · top: YARDER (10 pts)

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5-letter words

11 words

4-letter words

12 words

3-letter words

17 words

2-letter words

11 words

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