Meaning

adjective offering little or no hope; ; ; - J.M.Synge

adjective providing no shelter or sustenance

adjective unpleasantly cold and damp

originFrom Middle English bleke (also bleche, whence the English doublet bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English blǣc, blǣċ, blāc (“bleak, pale, pallid”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), all from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). Cognate with Dutch bleek (“pale, wan, pallid”), Low German blek (“pale”),…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0