Jan 16, 2008 01:16
"The chief connotations of bleak are coldness and exposure to the elements. Bare means without covering; barren means incapable of producing. Bleak may combine the meanings of the two; in the northern climate a rock, island, moor, prairie, or mountainside, which is bare, blank, desolate, exposed, unsheltered, waste, or wild is sure to be cold and bleak; but in the tropics this would not be true; the sahara is a desolate waste of sand, unsheltered from the burning sun and swept by fierce winds, but it is not bleak; bleak is also applied to seasons, winds, etc., which are characterized by chill, chilling, chilly, cold, cutting, piercing, stormy, windy."
-bleak as defined by:
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Handbook of Synonyms Antonyms & Prepositions
by
James C. Fernald
1947 edition
when i am sad i look up words in this book, at random.