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Bleak vs Gloom - What's the difference?

bleak | gloom |

As nouns the difference between bleak and gloom

is that bleak is a small european river fish (alburnus alburnus ), of the family cyprinidae while gloom is darkness, dimness or obscurity.

As an adjective bleak

is without color; pale; pallid.

As a verb gloom is

to be dark or gloomy.

bleak

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) bleke (also bleche > English .

Adjective

(er)
  • Without color; pale; pallid.
  • * Foxe
  • When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.
  • Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
  • * Wordsworth
  • Wastes too bleak to rear / The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
  • * Longfellow
  • at daybreak, on the bleak sea beach
    A bleak and bare rock.
    They escaped across the bleak landscape.
    A bleak , crater-pocked moonscape.
    We hiked across open meadows and climbed bleak mountains.
  • Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
  • Downtown Albany felt bleak that February after the divorce.
    A bleak future is in store for you.
    The news is bleak .
    The survey paints a bleak picture.

    Etymology 2

    Probably from (etyl) bleikja .

    Noun

    (en noun) (wikipedia bleak)
  • A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus ), of the family Cyprinidae.
  • Synonyms
    * alburn * blay

    References

    Anagrams

    * *

    gloom

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • Darkness, dimness or obscurity.
  • the gloom of a forest, or of midnight
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom , I could make out nothing to show me where to work.
  • A melancholy, depressing or despondent atmosphere.
  • Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
  • * Burke
  • A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.
  • A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.
  • Derived terms

    * doom and gloom * gloomily * (l) (humorous) * gloomy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be dark or gloomy.
  • * Goldsmith
  • The black gibbet glooms beside the way.
  • * 1891 , Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 189:
  • Around all the dark forest gloomed .
  • to look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
  • * D. H. Lawrence
  • Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
  • To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.
  • * Walpole
  • A bow window gloomed with limes.
  • * Tennyson
  • A black yew gloomed the stagnant air.
  • To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
  • * Tennyson
  • Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.
  • * Goldsmith
  • What sorrows gloomed that parting day.
  • To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.