Scotland · adjective
dreich
Dreary, bleak, tedious, or unpleasantly long-drawn-out.
Uses your device’s built-in voice. Pronunciation is approximate because available voices and Scottish accents vary.
What dreich means
Dreich describes something gloomy, wearisome, or hard to enjoy. It is strongly associated with dull, cold, wet weather, but its older and wider sense also covers tedious work, a slow process, or a generally depressing situation.
How it is used
A speaker might call a grey rainy morning dreich, but can also describe a meeting, journey, or task as dreich when it drags on and feels joyless.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Pronunciation
- /driːx/; the final sound is like the ch in loch
- Register
- Widely recognised Scots word; common in informal Scottish English as well as Scots writing.
- Variants
- dreigh, dreech, driech
Examples
Each example is followed by its intended plain-English meaning.
It's a dreich morning, so take a waterproof jacket.
It's a gloomy, wet morning, so take a waterproof jacket.
The paperwork was a dreich job.
The paperwork was a tedious, wearisome job.
What to watch for
Dreich does not mean rain alone. The word usually carries a feeling of dullness, bleakness, or tedium as well.