dreich

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [dɹiːx]

Adjective

dreich (comparative more dreich, superlative most dreich)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Bleak, miserable, dismal, cheerless, dreary.
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 243:
      It looked a dreich, cold place as you rode by at night, near as lonesome as the old Mill was, and not near as handy.
    • 2002, Glasgow's ambassadors receive a dreich welcome in Havana title of article in The Scotsman, 14 Nov 2002
    • 2004, but driving home at this dreich hour and at the end of a difficult shift, she found the ectoplasmic fog unnerving Susan Hill, The Various Haunts of Men (2004) page 4.
    • 2008 used in BBC Radio 4 Weather forecast as interchangeable with "dreary/dismal" 4th Nov 2008 12:57

Anagrams


Irish

Noun

dreich f sg

  1. dative singular of dreach (front)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
dreich dhreich ndreich
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading


Scots

Etymology

From Old English *drēoh. Alternatively from Britonnic, cognate with "Drycin" also spelt "Drychin" meaning "Foul Weather".

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /driːç/

Adjective

dreich (comparative mair dreich, superlative maist dreich)

  1. persistent, continuous, relentless
  2. slow, tardy
  3. dismal, dowie, dreary, bleak
    • 2000, Matthew Fitt, But n Ben A-Go-Go, Luath 2000, p.132:
      The dreich inhuman blue on Nadia's lang-wheesht thocht-screen fizzed intae life.
  4. tedious, wearisome, drawn-out
  5. reluctant, tight-fisted, driving a hard bargain

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.