From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbleakbleak /bliːk/ ●○○ adjective 1 HOPEwithout anything to make you feel happy or hopefula bleak future/prospect The company still hopes to find a buyer, but the future looks bleak.2 SAD/UNHAPPYcold and without any pleasant or comfortable features a bleak January afternoon The landscape was bleak. —bleakly adverb —bleakness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
bleak• For savers, the picture probably will get bleaker.• His prospects of finding another job are bleak.• The wild landscape was bleak and bare.• This is the wildest, bleakest and least densely populated area of Ulthuan.• The Chicago settings are authentically bleak and the plotting subtle and incisive.• The snow-covered coast looked bleak and uninviting.• Prospects of success looked bleak as the opposition scored the first two goals.• Many people were facing a financially bleak Christmas.• It looks pretty bleak for avocado growers here.• The future looked bleak for the Democratic party.• Things began to look pretty bleak, from the standpoint of building a career.• The chief executive said that the company was looking at a bleak future.• Only an occasional ferry boat makes a last, bleak journey across the river to Birkenhead and the Wirral.• Maybe in the bleak light of dawn Kathy arranged a pile of twigs on the beach.• He gazed around the empty, bleak little room in despair.• It could have shared the owner's adventures and vicissitudes, occupied his leisure hours, cheered his bleaker moments.• the bleakest year of the Depressiona bleak future/prospect• But as she lapped up the five-star treatment on the champagne Concorde flight, angry pensioners were facing a bleak future.• His marriage has broken up, he rarely sees his teenage daughter and he faces a bleak future.• Now the hard working couple say they face a miserable Christmas and a bleak future.• They say the airlift has brought new hope to people who would otherwise have faced a bleak future.Origin bleak (1300-1400) Old Norse bleikr “pale, white” 