Bleak (?), a. [OE. blac, bleyke, bleche, AS. blac, blc, pale, wan; akin to Icel. bleikr, Sw. blek, Dan. bleg, OS. blk, D. bleek, OHG. pleih, G. bleich; all from the root of AS. blican to shine; akin to OHG. blichen to shine; cf. L. flagrare to burn, Gr. to burn, shine, Skr. bhraj to shine, and E. flame. 98. Cf. Bleach, Blink, Flame.]

1.

Without color; pale; pallid.

[Obs.]

When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead. Foxe.

2.

Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.

Wastes too bleak to rear The common growth of earth, the foodful ear. Wordsworth.

At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach. Longfellow.

3.

Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast.

-- Bleak"ish, a. -- Bleak"ly, adv. -- Bleak"ness, n.

 

© Webster 1913.


Bleak, n. [From Bleak, a., cf. Blay.] Zool.

A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae; the blay.

[Written also blick.]

⇒ The silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.

Baird.

 

© Webster 1913.

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