bleak

But the messages we’ve received are almost uniformly bleak, suggesting that motivation is a problem.

But on the other side of the frontier, across the no-man’s land in a dry sloping wadi and along our bleak route, gun-toting RSF fighters in camouflage uniforms patrol this part of Sudan.

What once felt like a promising future for the Trojans up front had, in the matter of an afternoon, turned particularly bleak.

The bleak conditions also exact a mental toll.

The labor disquiet has been further fueled by a bleak jobs market.