Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Drear |
DrearAdjective1. Depressing in character or appearance; "drove through dingy streets"; "the dismal prison twilight"- Charles Dickens; "drab old buildings"; "a dreary mining town"; "gloomy tenements"; "sorry routine that follows on the heels of death"- B.A.Williams. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "drear" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Note: Drear \Drear\, noun. Sadness; dismalness. [Obsolete]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: DrearSynonyms: dingy (adj), dismal (adj), drab (adj), dreary (adj), gloomy (adj), sorry (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Drear |
| Specialty definitions using "drear": story. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | House of Dies Drear (1984) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Lays of Mystery Imagination and Humour | Carroll, Lewis | Strange pictures decked the arras drear, Strange characters of woe and fear, The humbugs of the social sphere. |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house today is not drear and melancholy, but good for me too. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue. The truth of the stories here following has, however, not been successfully impeached. One evening Mr. Rudolph Block, of New York, found himself seated at dinner alongside Mr. Percival Pollard, the distinguished critic. "Mr. Pollard," said he, "my book, The Biography of a Dead Cow, is published anonymously, but you can hardly be ignorant of its authorship. Yet in reviewing it you speak of it as the work of the Idiot of the Century. Do you think that fair criticism?" "I am very sorry, sir," replied the critic, amiably, "but it did not occur to me that you really might not wish the public to know who wrote it." Mr. W.C. Morrow, who used to live in San Jose, California, was addicted to writing ghost stories which made the reader feel as if a stream of lizards, fresh from the ice, were streaking it up his back and hiding in his hair. San Jose was at that time believed to be haunted by the visible spirit of a noted bandit named Vasquez, who had been hanged there. The town was not very well lighted, and it is putting it mildly to say that San Jose was reluctant to be out o' nights. One particularly dark night two gentlemen were abroad in the loneliest spot within the city limits, talking loudly to keep up their courage, when they came upon Mr. J.J. Owen, a well-known journalist. "Why, Owen," said one, "what brings you here on such a night as this? You told me that this is one of Vasquez' favorite haunts! And you are a believer. Aren't you afraid to be out?" "My dear fellow," the journalist replied with a drear autumnal cadence in his speech, like the moan of a leaf-laden wind, "I am afraid to be in. I have one of Will Morrow's stories in my pocket and I don't dare to go where there is light enough to read it." Rear-Admiral Schley and Representative Charles F. Joy were standing near the Peace Monument, in Washington, discussing the question, Is success a failure? Mr. Joy suddenly broke off in the middle of an eloquent sentence, exclaiming: "Hello! I've heard that band before. Santlemann's, I think." "I don't hear any band," said Schley. "Come to think, I don't either," said Joy; "but I see General Miles coming down the avenue, and that pageant always affects me in the same way as a brass band. One has to scrutinize one's impressions pretty closely, or one will mistake their origin." While the Admiral was digesting this hasty meal of philosophy General Miles passed in review, a spectacle of impressive dignity. When the tail of the seeming procession had passed and the two observers had recovered from the transient blindness caused by its effulgence -- "He seems to be enjoying himself," said the Admiral. "There is nothing," assented Joy, thoughtfully, "that he enjoys one-half so well." The illustrious statesman, Champ Clark, once lived about a mile from the village of Jebigue, in Missouri. One day he rode into town on a favorite mule, and, hitching the beast on the sunny side of a street, in front of a saloon, he went inside in his character of teetotaler, to apprise the barkeeper that wine is a mocker. It was a dreadfully hot day. Pretty soon a neighbor came in and seeing Clark, said: "Champ, it is not right to leave that mule out there in the sun. He'll roast, sure! -- he was smoking as I passed him." "O, he's all right," said Clark, lightly; "he's an inveterate smoker." The neighbor took a lemonade, but shook his head and repeated that it was not right. He was a conspirator. There had been a fire the night before: a stable just around the corner had burned and a number of horses had put on their immortality, among them a young colt, which was roasted to a rich nut-brown. Some of the boys had turned Mr. Clark's mule loose and substituted the mortal part of the colt. Presently another man entered the saloon. "For mercy's sake!" he said, taking it with sugar, "do remove that mule, barkeeper: it smells." "Yes," interposed Clark, "that animal has the best nose in Missouri. But if he doesn't mind, you shouldn't." In the course of human events Mr. Clark went out, and there, apparently, lay the incinerated and shrunken remains of his charger. The boys idd not have any fun out of Mr. Clarke, who looked at the body and, with the non-committal expression to which he owes so much of his political preferment, went away. But walking home late that night he saw his mule standing silent and solemn by the wayside in the misty moonlight. Mentioning the name of Helen Blazes with uncommon emphasis, Mr. Clark took the back track as hard as ever he could hook it, and passed the night in town. General H.H. Wotherspoon, president of the Army War College, has a pet rib-nosed baboon, an animal of uncommon intelligence but imperfectly beautiful. Returning to his apartment one evening, the General was surprised and pained to find Adam (for so the creature is named, the general being a Darwinian) sitting up for him and wearing his master's best uniform coat, epaulettes and all. "You confounded remote ancestor!" thundered the great strategist, "what do you mean by being out of bed after naps? -- and with my coat on!" Adam rose and with a reproachful look got down on all fours in the manner of his kind and, scuffling across the room to a table, returned with a visiting-card: General Barry had called and, judging by an empty champagne bottle and several cigar-stumps, had been hospitably entertained while waiting. The general apologized to his faithful progenitor and retired. The next day he met General Barry, who said: "Spoon, old man, when leaving you last evening I forgot to ask you about those excellent cigars. Where did you get them?" General Wotherspoon did not deign to reply, but walked away. "Pardon me, please," said Barry, moving after him; "I was joking of course. Why, I knew it was not you before I had been in the room fifteen minutes." |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Drear" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Drear" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 6 | 143,867 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
house of die drear | 36 |
die drear | 6 |
die drear house summary | 4 |
by die drear hamilton house virginia | 3 |
die drear house note | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "drear"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | كئيب (bleak, blue, cheerless, damp, dark, dejected, depressed, depressing, depressive, desolate, disconsolate, dismal, dispirited, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorous, down, downcast, down-hearted, dreary, droopy, dyspeptic, funeral, funereal, gloomy, glum, gray, grey, grief-stricken, grieved, grievous, heavy-hearted, ill, joyless, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited, melancholic, melancholy, moody, mournful, out of spirits, rueful, sad, saddening, somber, sombre, spiritless, sullen, tearful, weary), موحش (dismal, gloomy), حزين (afflicted, cheerless, dejected, depressed, doleful, dolorous, downcast, dreary, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholic, miserable, mournful, pathetic, plaintive, rueful, sad, sore, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy, wailful, weary, wistful, woeful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | скучен (arid, dead alive, dryasdust, dull, dumb, dusty, heartbreaking, heavy, humdrum, insipid, jejune, jogtrot, long, long winded, long-spun, moldy, monotonous, mouldy, mousey, plodding, pokey, ponderous, prosaic, prosy, slow, soggy, stodgy, stuffy, tedious, uninspired, uninteresting, unvaried, vapid, weariful, wearisome), мрачен (black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, darksome, dejected, depressing, dim, dingy, dismal, drab, dumpish, dusky, forbidding, gaunt, gloomy, glum, grave, grey, grim, grisly, heavy, inhospitable, joyless, low-browed, lowering, melancholy, mirk, morbid, morose, murk, murky, obscure, sad, saturnine, somber, sombre, sullen, sunless, tenebrous, thick, tristful), пуст (bleak, desert, deserted, desolate, empty, harsh, inane, infernal, inhospitable, uncouth, uninhabited, vacant, vain, waste, wild, yeasty), печален (dark, disconsolate, distressful, distressing, dolorous, grave, grievous, heavyhearted, lamentable, lugubrious, mournful, rueful, sad, somber, sombre, sorrowful, tearful, tristful, woeful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | chmurný (dismal, dreary, dull, gloomy, Gray, grey, grim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | triste (dreary), morne (drab, dreary), lugubre (dreary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Trostlosigkeit (bleakness, desolation, disconsolateness, dreariness, grimness, hopelessness, misery, wretchedness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | θλιβερόσ (afflictive, bleak, doleful, dolourous, dreary, grievous, lugubrious, pathetical, rueful, woeful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | ע'מומי (bleak, cheerless, distressful, sorrowful, wistful). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | sivár (bald, barren, bleak, desolate, dingy, dreary, dusty, gaunt, humdrum, meagre, penurious, sullen), kietlen (bald, bare, bleak, dreary, somber, sombre). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eardray мрачный (black, bleak, cheerless, dark, darksome, dismal, dour, dreary, funereal, gaunt, gloomy, glum, grave, grey, grim, heavy, lugubrious, macabre, mirk, morose, mournful, murk, murky, obscure, saturnine, somber, sombre, sullen, tenebrous, woebegone), жалобный (doleful, piteous, plaintive, wailful). (various references) dosadan (acerbate, annoying, boring, bothersome, dreary, grinding, humdrum, incommodious, long-spun, pain in the neck, pesky, poky, repetitious, slow, stodgy, stuffy, teasing, tedious, tiresome, undiverted, vexatious), turoban (bleak, dour, dreary, gloomy, morose, overcast). (various references) triste (bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, depressing, dismal, doleful, dolorous, dreary, gaunt, gloomy, glum, heavy, hipped, joyless, joylessly, mirthless, miserable, mournful, rueful, sad, somber, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy), pensativo (digestible, dreary, meditative, pensive, reflective, ruminative, thinkable, thoughtful, wistful), monótono (dead alive, drab, dreary, humdrum, monotone, monotonous, prosy, repetitious, singsong). (various references) kederli (broken hearted, chapfallen, dejected, depressed, dismal, doleful, dolorous, dreary, heartsick, heartsore, heavy-hearted, low-spirited, mournful, pained, rueful, sick at heart, sorrowful, unhappy, woeful), kasvetli (black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, depressive, dismal, doleful, dreary, funereal, gloomy, grave, howling, lugubrious, melancholy, mopish, muzzy, pitchy, sable, sad, somber, sombre, sullen, tenebrous, waste), iç karartıcı (depressing, dreary, gloomy, sad, somber, sombre, sullen), ümitsiz (dreary, forlorn, frantic, gloomy, gone, hopeless, past cure, past hope, pathetic). (various references) сумний (afflictive, baleful, cheerless, comfortless, damp, dark, deplorable, despondent, dismal, doleful, dreary, dumpish, dumpy, elegiac, elegiacal, grievous, heavy-hearted, joyless, lamentable, lugubrious, maddening, melancholy, mournful, overcast, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, unhappy, wailful, wan), похмурий (adust, bleak, cheerless, dark, darksome, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, dreary, dull, dusky, frowning, gash, gaunt, ghastly, gloomy, glum, grave, gruff, hard-faced, inhospitable, lowering, macabre, mopish, mournful, murk, nightly, obscure, overcast, sable, saturnine, sepulchral, shadowy, stygian, sullen, surly, tenebrous). (various references) thê lương (dreary, gaunt, mournful, stygian), t"i t n (dreary, poky, shabby, sorry), bu"n thảm (dismal, dreary), ảm đạm (black, dreary, dull, howling, mournful, stygian). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "drear": drearier, drearies, dreariest, drearily, dreariness, drearinesses, drears, dreary. (additional references) | |
Words containing "drear": dundrearies. (additional references) | |
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"Drear" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Crear, Darara, derare, draee, drea, drean, dreap, dreaw, dreir, dreird, drekar, dreo, Dreu, droar, Drotar, Drouard, druir, grear, idriart, trear, wrear. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: darer, rared. | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-r-r" | |
-1 letter: dare, dear, rare, read, rear. | |
-2 letters: are, ear, era, err, rad, red. | |
-3 letters: ad, ae, ar, de, ed, er, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-r-r" | |
+1 letter: adorer, arider, barred, carder, darers, darker, darner, darter, dearer, draper, drawer, drears, dreary, errand, garred, grader, harder, jarred, larder, marred, parred, raider, reader, reared, redear, redraw, regard, reread, retard, reward, roared, tarred, trader, warder, warred. | |
+2 letters: abrader, acrider, adherer, adjurer, admirer, adorers, adorner, arbored, armored, arrased, arrayed, arrived, arrowed, averred, awarder, boarder, braider, brander, broader, carders, carried, charred, corrade, cradler, darners, darters, drabber, drafter, dragger, drainer, drapers, drapery, drawers, drawler, dreamer, drosera, dwarfer, eardrop, eardrum, errands, gnarred, graders, grander, guarder, hardier, harried, hoarder, knarred, larders, lardier, married, parader, pardner, parried, raiders, randier, rapider, razored, readers, readier, readorn, rearmed, reboard, redears, redraft, redrawn, redraws, redream, redware, regards, regrade, reheard, rereads, retards, retread, rewards, reynard, ruderal, scarred, sparred, starred, tardier, tarried, traders, treader, warders. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 72 65 61 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. .-. . .- .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D r e a r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0072 0065 0061 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3884716784 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
