Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - bleak

(bleaker, bleakest) 1. If a situation is bleak, it is bad, and seems unlikely to improve. The immediate outlook remains bleak... Many predicted a bleak future. = gloomy ? bright ADJ • bleakness The continued bleakness of the American job market was blamed. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp, oft N of n 2. If you describe a place as bleak, you mean that it looks cold, empty, and unattractive. The island’s pretty bleak. ...bleak inner-city streets. ADJ 3. When the weather is bleak, it is cold, dull, and unpleasant. The weather can be quite bleak on the coast. ADJ 4. If someone looks or sounds bleak, they look or sound depressed, as if they have no hope or energy. Alberg gave him a bleak stare. ADJ • bleakly ‘There is nothing left,’ she says bleakly. ADV: usu ADV with v, also ADV adj