dree
/dɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.77 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
Of the doing of a task: with concentration; laboriously.
adv
Chiefly of the falling of rain: without pause or stop; continuously, incessantly.
adj
Alternative form of dreich.
Example Sentences
- "Peace to the souls of the graveless dead! / 'Twas an awful doom to dree; / But fearful and wondrous are thy works, / O God! in the boundless sea!"
- "And redoubled pine for its dwellers I dree."
- "Life is blood, shed and offered. / The eagle’s eye can face this dree. / To beasts of chase the lie is proffered: / Timor Mortis Conturbat Me."
- "To be sure, t' winter's been a dree season, and thou'rt, maybe, in the right on't to make a late start."
- "But he's lying i' such dree poverty,—and niver a friend to go near him,—niver a person to speak a kind word t' him."
- "So, after two hours' running downhill, we came out in the level valley at Glashütte. It was raining now, a thick dree rain."
Etymology
Probably partly borrowed from Scots dree, and partly derived from its etymon Middle English dreen, dreghen, dreogen, drien, from Old English drēogan, from Proto-West Germanic *dreugan, from Proto-Germanic *dreuganą (“to act; to work, (specifically) to do military service”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to hold fast”). Doublet of dreich, dright, and drighten. Cognates * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌽 (driugan, “to do military service”) * Icelandic drýgja (“to commit, connect, perpetrate, lengthen”) * Scots dree, drie (“to bear, endure, suffer, thole”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɹi/
- British English: /dɹiː/
Usage
Inflected Forms
drees (present, singular)
dreeing (participle, present)
dreed (participle, past)
dreed (past)
drees (plural)
more dree (comparative)
most dree (superlative)
dreer (comparative)
dreest (superlative)