Bleak
Bleak (blēk) , adjective
[Old English blac, bleyke, bleche, Anglo-Saxon blāc, blac, pale, wan; akin to Icelandic bleikr, Swedish blek, Danish bleg, Old Saxon blēk, Dutch bleek, Old High German pleih, German bleich; all from the root of Anglo-Saxon blīcan to shine; akin to Old High German blīchen to shine; compare Latin flagrare to burn, Greek fle`gein to burn, shine, Sanskrit bhrāj to shine, and English flame. r98. Compare Bleach, Blink, Flame.]
1.
Without color; pale; pallid. [Obsolete]
When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.
2.
Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
Wastes too bleak to rear
The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach.
3.
Cold and cutting; cheerless; as, a bleak blast.
Bleak , noun
[From Bleak, a., compare Blay.]
(Zoology) A small European river fish (Leuciscus alburnus), of the family Cyprinida; the blay.
The silvery pigment lining the scales of the bleak is used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.