[*** \mathrm{bleak}^1] |blēk|

source: By Boris van Hoytema from Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Barren Wasteland, CC BY 2.0

DISMAL, DREARY, BLEAK, GLOOMY, CHEERLESS, DESOLATE mean devoid of cheer or comfort.

DISMAL indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess.

e.g. dismal weather

DREARY, often interchangeable with dismal, emphasizes discouragement resulting from sustained dullness or futility.

e.g. a dreary job

BLEAK suggests chill, dull, and barren characteristics that utterly dishearten.

e.g. the bleak years of the depression

GLOOMY often suggests lack of hope or promise.

e.g. gloomy war news

CHEERLESS stresses absence of anything cheering.

e.g. a drab and cheerless office

DESOLATE adds an element of utter remoteness or lack of human contact to any already disheartening aspect.

e.g. a desolate outpost

(of an area of land) lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements:

〈場所･風景が〉荒涼とした

e.g. a bleak and barren moor.

(of a building or room) charmless and inhospitable; dreary:

e.g. he looked around the bleak little room in despair.

(of the weather) cold and miserable:

〈天気などが〉寒々とした

e.g. a bleak midwinter's day.

(of a situation or future prospect) not hopeful or encouraging; unlikely to have a favorable outcome:

〈状況が〉喜べない, よくなる見込みのない

e.g. he paints a bleak picture of a company that has lost its way.

(of a person or a person's expression) cold and forbidding:

〈人･表情が〉冷たい, よそよそしい.

e.g. his bleak, near vacant eyes grew remote.

bleakly |ˈblēklē| adverb

Old English blāc ‘shining, white’, or in later use from synonymous Old Norse bleikr; ultimately of Germanic origin and related to bleach.

[*** \mathrm{bleak}^2] |blēk|

a small silvery shoaling fish of the minnow family, found in Eurasian rivers.

e.g. several species, in particular A. alburnus.

late 15th century: from Old Norse bleikja.