Forms: 6 (bleke in bleke-ly) bleeke, 6–7 bleake, 7– bleak. [A form (not found before the 16th c.) parallel to the synonymous bleche (bleach), bleyke (blayke), blake, bloke, in earlier, and partly in contemporary use. Its exact relation to these normal forms is not easily determined. Bleke, bleak may have been the northern form of bleche, BLEACH a.; cf. BLEAK v. = BLEACH v.; but there is no evidence of its having originated in the north. It is also possible that it was a 16th-c. spelling of bleyke, blayke, from ON., or even of the northern dial. blake; or that it resulted from a blending of bleach, with bleyke or blake. Cf. BLAKE, BLEACH, BLEYKE a.]
† 1. Pale, pallid, wan; deficient in color, esp. deficient in the ruddy bloom of health, or the full green of vegetation; of a sickly hue: also used like pale to modify other colors (see b). Still dial.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 198 b. [She] began to recoloure her bleake and pale face with a vermilion teinte and roseall rudde.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xlviii. 69. The floures be … more pale or bleaker.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. xxxv. § 1. 48. This Iris hath his flower of a bleake white colour.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., I. iv. 43. She was of a whitish bleake colour, and of a cachecticall disposition.
1633. G. Herbert, Church-rents, ii. in Temple. Calamities Turned your ruddie into pale and bleak.
1840. Forby, Norf. & Suff. Wds., Bleek is still used in Norfolk to signify pale and sickly.
b. 1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxix. 117. Small pale or bleake yellow floures. Ibid., II. xxvi. 277. Sometimes a bleeke or faynt yellow.
1629. J. Parkinson, Parad. in Sole, xc. 388. Of a faire bleake blew Colour, and in others pure white.
1665–76. Ray, Flora, 78. The flowers are of a bleak ash colour.
2. Bare of vegetation; exposed: now often with some mixture of sense 3, wind-swept.
1538. [see BLEAKLY].
1574. R. Scot, Hop Gard. (1578), 3. Many … lay their Gardens very open and bleake to the South.
1608. Shaks., Per., III. ii. 14. Our lodgings, standing bleak upon the sea.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 543. The bleak Meotian Strand.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 80, ¶ 5. Bleak hills and leafless woods.
1783–94. Blake, Songs Exp., Holy Thursd., 10. Their fields are bleak and bare.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 44. On a bleak height in full view.
b. In transferred use, rare.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 167. Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread.
1862. Mrs. Browning, Musical Ins., iii. in Last Poems, 55. With his hard bleak steel.
3. Cold, chilly; usually of wind or weather.
1595. Shaks., John, V. vii. 40. To make his bleake windes kisse my parched lips.
1671. Milton, P. R., II. 72. Scarce a shed … to shelter him or me From the bleak air.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, II. 267. The cold wintry wind Blew bleak.
1814. Wordsw., Excurs., I. 888. In bleak December, I retraced this way.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 3. The wind was bleak.
4. fig. Cheerless, dreary.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 477, ¶ 1 (J.). Presents us with nothing but bleak and barren Prospects.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xiv. (1857), 212. His course … lying barely beyond the bleak edge of poverty.
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (1873), 126. Firmest in the bleakest hour.
5. quasi.-adv.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 33. Where Boreas doth blow full bitter bleake.
