dreariness
English
Etymology
From Middle English drerinesse, drerynesse, from Old English drēoriġnys (“dreariness, sadness”), equivalent to dreary + -ness.
Noun
dreariness (countable and uncountable, plural drearinesses)
- The characteristic of being dreary.
- 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
- What tho’ the moon—the white moon
Shed all the splendour of her noon,
Her smile is chilly—and her beam,
In that time of dreariness, will seem
(So like you gather in your breath)
A portrait taken after death.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.