These words refer to people or things that look wasted or inhospitable. Bleak is the most general of these and can apply equally well to people or things, especially landscapes or houses. It suggests a bare or unpleasant prospect: the bleak , ice-encrusted mountains of the Andes; the bleak , unpainted house that seemed almost uninhabitable. Used of people, it suggests a facial expression that is unhappy or unfriendly: She gave her husband a bleak , unsatisfied look. It can, of course, suggest anything unhopeful or unpromising: their one bleak hope for survival.

Gaunt and haggard are more closely tied to the physical appearance of people. Gaunt stresses leanness but it may or may not suggest a wasted or shrunken appearance: the sailor’s gaunt , weather-beaten face. Haggard , however, insists on emaciation or at very least suggests a drawn expression resulting from strain or shock: the haggard faces of the prisoners in the concentration camp; a face haggard with grief. Gaunt can also apply to things or landscapes, in which case it suggests a harsh or bare scene: the gaunt moors of the Brontë country. In this context, bleak is more intense than gaunt : grateful for even the gaunt plains after the bleak wasteland of the desert. Haggard would sound less natural in describing anything other than people, but used metaphorically, it might suggest a worn, run-down appearance: the rows of haggard houses that testified to poverty and neglect.

Desolate and barren refer to uninhabitable or unfeatured landscape. Desolate suggests an underpopulated starkness, barren a complete absence of life: only a few farmhouses strung out over the desolate countryside; barren rocks where the smallest shrub could find no foothold. Desolate can, however, also suggest solitariness or friendlessness: a desolate pine or two struggling for life above the timber line: a girl left desolate in the strange city. Barren , like bleak , can suggest an unpromising outlook; a plan barren of practical remedies. Barren , in the sense discussed here, could not be applied to people.