Dictionary Definition
bleak adj
1 offering little or no hope; "the future looked
black"; "prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has
always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a dim view of
things" [syn: black,
dim]
2 providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky
hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high
Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"
[syn: bare, barren, desolate, stark]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /bli:k/
- Rhymes with: -iːk
Etymology 1
From blāc.Adjective
Translations
desolate and exposed
- Dutch: desolaat
- Finnish: karu, paljas
- German: öde, ungeschützt
cheerless
- Dutch: vreugdeloos
- Finnish: synkkä, kolkko
- German: freudlos
Español: Pálido
Etymology 2
Probably from bleikja.Noun
- A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae; the blay.
Translations
small European river fish
- Dutch: bliek
- Finnish: salakka
- French: ablette
- German: Laube, Ukelei
- Old English: blæge
- Polish: ukleja
- Russian: уклейка (ukl'éjka)
- Spanish: albur
- Swedish: löja
Extensive Definition
The bleak is a small pelagic fish of the Cyprinid family.
Description
The body of the bleak is elongated and flat. The head is pointed and the relatively small mouth is turned upwards. The anal fin is long and has 18 to 23 fin rays. The lateral line is complete.The bleak has a shiny silvery colour the fins are pointed and colourless. The mouth is turned upward. The maximum length is approximately 25 cm.In Europe the species can easily be confused with
many other species. In England young Bream and
Silver
Bream can be confused with young Bleak. The pointed upward
turned mouth of the bleak is already distinctive at young stages.
Young Roach and
Ruffe have a
wider body and a short anal fin.
Occurrence
The Bleak occurs in Western England. In Europe it occurs in Southern Sweden, France and eastward toward the Wolga Basin and North-Western Turkey.Ecology
It lives in great schools and feeds upon small molluscs, insects that fall in the water, insect larvae, worms, small shellfish and plant detritus. The bleak prefers open waters and is found in large numbers where there is an inflow of food from pumping stations or behind weirs. It is also found in streams and also in clear standing waters and can be very numerous in lakes.Spawning
The bleak spawns near the shore in shallow waters. Some were found in deep water. The substrate is not important.Importance
The Bleak is an important food source for predatory fish. It is more sensitive to pollution then other cyprinids, which might explain the decline in North-Western Europe.Particularities
The scales of the Bleak are used to make a silver pigment called the Essence Orientale and artificial pearls.References
bleak in Belarusian: Укляя
bleak in Belarusian (Tarashkevitsa): Укляя
bleak in Bulgarian: Уклейка
bleak in German: Ukelei
bleak in Estonian: Viidikas
bleak in Spanish: Alburnus alburnus
bleak in French: Ablette
bleak in Western Frisian: Wever (fisk)
bleak in Italian: Alburnus alburnus
bleak in Lithuanian: Paprastoji aukšlė
bleak in Hungarian: Szélhajtó küsz
bleak in Dutch: Alver
bleak in Norwegian: Laue
bleak in Polish: Ukleja (ryba)
bleak in Russian: Уклейка
bleak in Slovenian: Zelenika
bleak in Serbian: Кедер
bleak in Finnish: Salakka
bleak in Swedish: Löja
bleak in Turkish: İnci balığı
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Siberian, affecting, afflictive, affording no
hope, algid, apathetic, arctic, austere, bare, barren, below zero, biting, bitter, bitterly cold, black, blown, boreal, brisk, brumal, cheerless, chilly, cold, cold as charity, cold as
death, cold as ice, cold as marble, comfortless, crisp, cutting, dark, deplorable, depressing, depressive, desolate, despairing, desperate, despondent, discomforting, disconsolate, disheartening, dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dour, drear, drearisome, dreary, exposed, forlorn, freezing, freezing cold,
frigid, funebrial, funereal, gelid, glacial, gloomy, grave, gray, grievous, grim, hard, harsh, hibernal, hiemal, hopeless, hyperborean, ice-cold,
ice-encrusted, icelike,
icy, in despair, inclement, joyless, keen, lamentable, melancholy, mournful, moving, nipping, nippy, numbing, oppressive, painful, pathetic, penetrating, piercing, pinching, piteous, pitiable, poignant, raw, regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad, saddening, saturnine, severe, sharp, sleety, slushy, snappy, solemn, somber, sombrous, sore, sorrowful, stone-cold,
stringent, subzero, supercooled, touching, triste, uncomfortable, unhappy, unhopeful, weariful, wearisome, weary, windblown, windswept, winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry, without hope, woebegone, woeful, wretched