DULL

dull, slow, sluggish

(adjective) (of business) not active or brisk; “business is dull (or slow)”; “a sluggish market”

dull

(adjective) emitting or reflecting very little light; “a dull glow”; “dull silver badly in need of a polish”; “a dull sky”

dull

(adjective) (of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted; “dull greens and blues”

dense, dim, dull, dumb, obtuse, slow

(adjective) slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity; “so dense he never understands anything I say to him”; “never met anyone quite so dim”; “although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick”- Thackeray; “dumb officials make some really dumb decisions”; “he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse”; “worked with the slow students”

dull, leaden

(adjective) darkened with overcast; “a dark day”; “a dull sky”; “the sky was leaden and thick”

dull

(adjective) not having a sharp edge or point; “the knife was too dull to be of any use”

dull

(adjective) not keenly felt; “a dull throbbing”; “dull pain”

dull

(adjective) lacking in liveliness or animation; “he was so dull at parties”; “a dull political campaign”; “a large dull impassive man”; “dull days with nothing to do”; “how dull and dreary the world is”; “fell back into one of her dull moods”

boring, deadening, dull, ho-hum, irksome, slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome

(adjective) so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; “a boring evening with uninteresting people”; “the deadening effect of some routine tasks”; “a dull play”; “his competent but dull performance”; “a ho-hum speaker who couldn’t capture their attention”; “what an irksome task the writing of long letters is”- Edmund Burke; “tedious days on the train”; “the tiresome chirping of a cricket”- Mark Twain; “other people’s dreams are dreadfully wearisome”

dull, muffled, muted, softened

(adjective) being or made softer or less loud or clear; “the dull boom of distant breaking waves”; “muffled drums”; “the muffled noises of the street”; “muted trumpets”

dull, thudding

(adjective) not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft; “the dull thud”; “thudding bullets”

dull

(adjective) blunted in responsiveness or sensibility; “a dull gaze”; “so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her”- Willa Cather

dull

(verb) make less lively or vigorous; “Middle age dulled her appetite for travel”

dull

(verb) become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness; “the varnished table top dulled with time”

pall, dull

(verb) become less interesting or attractive

dull

(verb) make dull in appearance; “Age had dulled the surface”

dull, blunt

(verb) make dull or blunt; “Too much cutting dulls the knife’s edge”

numb, benumb, blunt, dull

(verb) make numb or insensitive; “The shock numbed her senses”

muffle, mute, dull, damp, dampen, tone down

(verb) deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Proper noun

Dull (plural Dulls)

A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Dull is the 6961st most common surname in the United States, belonging to 4818 individuals. Dull is most common among White (93.3%) individuals.

Anagrams

• ULDL

Etymology

Adjective

dull (comparative duller, superlative dullest)

Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

Boring; not exciting or interesting.

Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.

Sluggish, listless.

Cloudy, overcast.

Insensible; unfeeling.

Heavy; lifeless; inert.

(of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.

(of a noise or sound) Not clear, muffled.

Synonyms

• See also boring

• See also stupid

• (not shiny): lackluster, matte

Antonyms

• bright

• intelligent

• sharp

Verb

dull (third-person singular simple present dulls, present participle dulling, simple past and past participle dulled)

(transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

(transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

(intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Synonyms

• dullen

Anagrams

• ULDL

Source: Wiktionary


Dull, a. [Compar. Duller; superl. Dullest.] Etym: [AS. dol foolish; akin to gedwelan to err, D. dol mad, dwalen to wander, err, G. toll mad, Goth. dwals foolish, stupid, cf. Gr. dhvr to cause to fall. Cf. Dolt, Dwale, Dwell, Fraud.]

1. Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. "Dull at classical learning." Thackeray. She is not bred so dull but she can learn. Shak.

2. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward. This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing. Matt. xiii. 15. O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue. Spenser.

3. Insensible; unfeeling. Think me not So dull a devil to forget the loss Of such a matchless wife. Beau. & Fl.

4. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt. "Thy scythe is dull." Herbert.

5. Not bright or clear to the eye; wanting in liveliness of color or luster; not vivid; obscure; dim; as, a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror.

6. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert. "The dull earth." Shak. As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain. Longfellow.

7. Furnishing little delight, spirit, or variety; uninteresting; tedious; cheerless; gloomy; melancholy; depressing; as, a dull story or sermon; a dull occupation or period; hence, cloudy; overcast; as, a dull day. Along life's dullest, dreariest walk. Keble.

Syn.

– Lifeless; inanimate; dead; stupid; doltish; heavy; sluggish; sleepy; drowsy; gross; cheerless; tedious; irksome; dismal; dreary; clouded; tarnished; obtuse. See Lifeless.

Dull, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Duller; p. pr. & vb. n. Dulling.]

1. To deprive of sharpness of edge or point. "This . . . dulled their swords." Bacon. Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. Shak.

2. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like. Those [drugs] she has Will stupefy and dull the sense a while. Shak. Use and custom have so dulled our eyes. Trench.

3. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. "Dulls the mirror." Bacon.

4. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden. Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through continuance. Hooker.

Dull, v. i.

Definition: To become dull or stupid. Rom. of R.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

28 March 2024

HUDDLED

(adjective) crowded or massed together; “give me...your huddled masses”; “the huddled sheep turned their backs against the wind”


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Coffee Trivia

International Coffee Day (September 29) is an occasion to promote and celebrate coffee as a beverage, with events occurring in places across the world. A day to promote fair trade coffee and raise awareness for the coffee growers’ plight. Other countries celebrate this event on October 1.

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