different between dreary vs helpless

English

Etymology

From Middle English drery, from Old English dr?ori? (“sad”), from Proto-Germanic *dreuzagaz (“bloody”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?rews- (“to break, break off, crumble”), equivalent to drear +? -y. Cognate with Dutch treurig (“sad, gloomy”), Low German trurig (“sad”), German traurig (“sad, sorrowful, mournful”), Old Norse dreyrigr (“bloody”). Related to Old English dr?or (“blood, falling blood”), Old English drysmian (“to become gloomy”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d???i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d????i/
• Rhymes: -???i, -??i

Adjective

dreary (comparative drearier or more dreary, superlative dreariest or most dreary)

1. Drab; dark, colorless, or cheerless.

   It had rained for three days straight, and the dreary weather dragged the townspeople's spirits down.

   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary...
2. (obsolete) Grievous, dire; appalling.

Derived terms

• drear
• drearihead
• drearihood
• drearily
• dreariment
• dreariness
• drearisome

Translations

Anagrams

• Ardrey, Drayer, yarder, yarred

English

Etymology

From Middle English helples, from Old English *helpl?as (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic *help?lausaz, equivalent to help +? -less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?lpl?s/
• Hyphenation: help?less

Adjective

helpless (comparative more helpless, superlative most helpless)

1. Unable to defend oneself.
   • 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?

     Then when you find yourself lyin' helpless in her arms

     You know you really love a woman

2. Lacking help; powerless.
3. Unable to act without help; needing help; feeble.
4. Uncontrollable.

   a helpless urge

5. (obsolete) From which there is no possibility of being saved.

   • For, while they fly that gulf's devouring jawes,
     They on the rock are rent and sunck in helplesse wawes.

Derived terms

• helplessly
• helplessness

Translations

Further reading

• helpless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• helpless in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.