different between sleepy vs dreary

English

Etymology

sleep +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sli?pi/
• Rhymes: -i?pi

Adjective

sleepy (comparative sleepier, superlative sleepiest)

1. Tired; feeling the need for sleep.

   • She wak'd her sleepy crew.

2. Suggesting tiredness.
   • 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus Chapter 2

     At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.

3. Tending to induce sleep; soporific.

   a sleepy drink or potion

4. Dull; lazy; heavy; sluggish.
5. Quiet; without bustle or activity.

   a sleepy English village

Synonyms

• tired
• See also Thesaurus:sleepy

Translations

Noun

sleepy (uncountable)

1. (informal) The gum that builds up in the eye; sleep, gound.

   Synonym: (which see for more) sleep

Anagrams

• Epleys

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