Definitions for: Dull


[adj] (of business) not active or brisk; "business is dull (or slow)"; "a sluggish market"
[adj] emitting or reflecting very little light; "a dull glow"; "dull silver badly in need of a polish"; "a dull sky"
[adj] (of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted; "dull greens and blues"
[adj] 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"
[adj] darkened with overcast; "a dark day"; "a dull sky"; "a gray rainy afternoon"; "gray clouds"; "the sky was leaden and thick"
[adj] not having a sharp edge or point; "the knife was too dull to be of any use"
[adj] not keenly felt; "a dull throbbing"; "dull pain"
[adj] 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"
[adj] 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"
[adj] 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"
[adj] not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft; "the dull thud"; "thudding bullets"; "thumping feet on the carpeted stairs"
[adj] blunted in responsiveness or sensibility; "a dull gaze"; "so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her"- Willa Cather
[v] make less lively or vigorous; "Middle age dulled her appetite for travel"
[v] become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness, as of a varnished surface
[v] become less interesting or attractive
[v] make dull in appearance; "Age had dulled the surface"
[v] make dull or blunt, as of sharp edges or knives' blades
[v] make numb or insensitive; "The shock numbed her senses"
[v] deaden (a sound or noise), esp. by wrapping



Webster (1913) Definition: Dull, a. [Compar. Duller; superl. Dullest.] [AS. dol
foolish; akin to gedwelan to err, D. dol mad, dwalen to
wander, err, G. toll mad, Goth. dwals foolish, stupid, cf.
Gr. ? turbid, troubled, Skr. 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.
To become dull or stupid. --Rom. of R.

Synonyms: arid, benumb, blunt, blunt, blunt, blunted, boring, bovine, cloudy, damp, dampen, deadened, deadening, dense, desiccate, desiccated, dim, drab, dreary, dulled, dumb, edgeless, flat, gray, grey, heavy, ho-hum, humdrum, inactive, insensitive, irksome, lackluster, lacklustre, leaden, lusterless, lustreless, mat, matt, matte, matted, monotonous, muffle, muffled, mute, muted, nonresonant, numb, obtuse, pall, slow, sluggish, soft, softened, stupid, tedious, thudding, thumping, tiresome, tone down, uninteresting, unreverberant, unsaturated, unsharpened, wearisome

Antonyms: bright, lively, sharp, sharpen

See Also: alter, change, change, cloud, colorless, colourless, desensitise, desensitize, soften, spiritless, unanimated, unpolished, weaken

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