Meanings
comparative more drearily · superlative most drearily
- In a dreary manner.
A bereft landscape of sad browns and sepias of winter lay all about us, the marshland drearily protracting itself towards the wide river.
1979, Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride”, in Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories, New York: Henry Holt, published 1996, page 1653 more examples
The fear of losing Joe’s confidence, and of thenceforth sitting in the chimney corner at night staring drearily at my forever lost companion and friend, tied up my tongue.
1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VI, in Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLCIt seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality, in all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast expansions of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
1911, Charles Egbert Craddock (aka Mary Noailles Murfree), His Unquiet GhostArmistead Maupin's novels reflect more awareness of, and affection for, the texture of real life than As If After Sex. Maupin's characters may get into cartoonlike adventures, but they are real people. Torchia's characters do drearily familiar things, but they are ghosts.
1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 14
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbin a cheerless manner
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishdrēoriġlīċe
- Middle Englishdrerily
- Englishdrearily
From Middle English drerily, from Old English drēoriġlīċe; equivalent to dreary + -ly.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with drearily
All rhymes →Cite this entry
drearily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drearily
“drearily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drearily. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “drearily,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drearily.
Source: drearily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.