drear

adj, noun — 2 senses

drear

adj

UK /dɹɪə/ · US /dɹɪɚ/

Etymology Shortening of dreary.

1

Literary, Poetic Dreary.

Earth raised up her head From the darkness dread and drear,1794, William Blake, Earth's Answer, lines 1-2
I spoke, perplexed by something in the signs Of desolation I had seen and heard In this drear pilgrimage to ruined shrines:1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:

2 more examples

And over all, the dead silence of the dead, the sense of utter loneliness, and the brooding spirit of the Past! How beautiful it was, and yet how drear! We did not dare to speak aloud.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
Now dreary dawns the eastern light, And fall of eve is drear, [...]1922, A. E. Housman, Last Poems, XXVIII, lines 1-2:

Derived terms: drearness, drearsome

drear

noun

Etymology Back-formation from dreary. Compare greed.

1

Obsolete Gloom; sadness.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.