Forbidding as Dickens’s house (5)
I believe the answer is:
bleak
'forbidding' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bleak that I've seen before include "Austere" , "Stark" , "Desolately barren" , "Offering little hope" , "Bare, inhospitable" .)