Dull \Dull\, v. i.
To become dull or stupid. --Rom. of R.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Dull \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.
[1913 Webster]
She is not bred so dull but she can learn. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.
[1913 Webster]
This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears
are dull of hearing. --Matt. xiii.
15.
[1913 Webster]
O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
3. Insensible; unfeeling.
[1913 Webster]
Think me not
So dull a devil to forget the loss
Of such a matchless wife. -- Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
4. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt. "Thy
scythe is dull." --Herbert.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
6. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless;
inert. "The dull earth." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so
changes of study a dull brain. -- Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Dull \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.
[1913 Webster]
Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the
senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.
[1913 Webster]
Those [drugs] she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense a while. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Use and custom have so dulled our eyes. --Trench.
[1913 Webster]
3. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. "Dulls the
mirror." --Bacon.
[1913 Webster]
4. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to
make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.
[1913 Webster]
Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through
continuance. --Hooker.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
dull
adj 1: 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" [ant: lively]
2: emitting or reflecting very little light; "a dull glow";
"dull silver badly in need of a polish"; "a dull sky"
[ant: bright]
3: 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" [syn: muffled, muted,
softened]
4: 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" [syn: boring, deadening, ho-hum, irksome,
slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome]
5: (of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted; "dull
greens and blues"
6: not keenly felt; "a dull throbbing"; "dull pain" [ant: sharp]
7: 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"
[syn: dense, dim, dumb, obtuse, slow]
8: (of business) not active or brisk; "business is dull (or
slow)"; "a sluggish market" [syn: slow, sluggish]
9: not having a sharp edge or point; "the knife was too dull to
be of any use" [ant: sharp]
10: blunted in responsiveness or sensibility; "a dull gaze"; "so
exhausted she was dull to what went on about her"- Willa
Cather
11: not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or
against something relatively soft; "the dull thud";
"thudding bullets" [syn: thudding]
12: darkened with overcast; "a dark day"; "a dull sky"; "a gray
rainy afternoon"; "gray clouds"; "the sky was leaden and
thick" [syn: gray, grey, leaden]
v 1: make dull in appearance; "Age had dulled the surface"
2: become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or
brightness; "the varnished table top dulled with time"
3: deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping [syn: muffle,
mute, damp, dampen, tone down]
4: make numb or insensitive; "The shock numbed her senses"
[syn: numb, benumb, blunt]
5: make dull or blunt; "Too much cutting dulls the knife's
edge" [syn: blunt] [ant: sharpen]
6: become less interesting or attractive [syn: pall]
7: make less lively or vigorous; "Middle age dulled her
appetite for travel"
WordNet (r) 2.0
664 Moby Thesaurus words for "dull":
KO, Laodicean, Olympian, Quaker-colored, Spartan, abate, abeyant,
abrupt, achromatic, achromatize, achromic, acier, affectless,
allay, alleviate, aloof, anemic, anesthetic, anesthetize,
anesthetized, apathetic, appease, arctic, arid, ascetic, ashen,
ashy, asleep, assuage, asthenic, attemper, attenuate, austere,
autistic, backward, bad, baffle, bald, banausic, bank the fire,
bare, barren, bate, bated, becloud, bedaze, bedim, beef-witted,
befog, benumb, benumbed, besot, betwixt and between, blah, blanch,
blank, blase, bleach, blear, blear-witted, bled white, blind,
bloodless, blue, bluff, blunt, blunt-edged, blunt-ended,
blunt-pointed, blunt-witted, blunted, bluntish, blur, blurry,
bored, boring, bovine, brainless, broken-record, bromidic,
cadaverous, callous, candid, canescent, cast down, cataleptic,
catatonic, characterless, chasten, chicken, chill, chilly,
chloranemic, chloroform, cinereous, cinerous, cloddish, cloud,
clouded, cloudy, cold, cold as charity, cold-blooded, coldcock,
coldhearted, colorless, comatose, common, commonplace, constrain,
control, cool, cowardly, cramp, crass, cripple, cushion, damp,
damped, dampen, dampened, dapple, dapple-gray, dappled,
dappled-gray, dark, darken, de-emphasize, dead, deaden,
deaden the pain, deadened, deadly pale, deafen, deathly pale,
debilitate, debilitated, decolor, decolorize, dejected, dense,
depressed, depressing, desensitize, desensitized, detached,
devitalize, dim, dim-witted, diminish, dimmed, dingy, direct,
discolor, discolored, disedge, disinterested, dismal,
dispassionate, dispirited, doltish, dope, dopey, dormant,
dove-colored, dove-gray, down, downhearted, downplay, drab, draggy,
drain, drain of color, draw the teeth, drearisome, dreary,
drooping, droopy, drug, drugged, dry, dryasdust, dull of mind,
dull-edged, dull-headed, dull-pated, dull-pointed, dull-witted,
dulled, dullish, dumb, dun, duncical, dusty, earthbound, ease,
ease matters, edgeless, effete, elephantine, emotionally dead,
emotionless, empty, enervate, enervated, enfeeble, etherize,
etiolate, etiolated, even-tempered, everlasting, eviscerate,
exanimate, exhaust, exhausting, exsanguinated, exsanguine,
exsanguineous, extenuate, fade, faded, fagging, faint, faintish,
fair, fair to middling, faired, fairish, fallow, fat-witted,
fatiguing, feeble, feebleminded, flabby, flaccid, flat, floppy,
foment, foul, frank, freeze, frigid, frosted, frosty, frozen, fume,
ghastly, give relief, glaucescent, glaucous, gloomy, gone, gray,
gray-black, gray-brown, gray-colored, gray-drab, gray-green,
gray-spotted, gray-toned, gray-white, grayed, grayish, grey,
griseous, grizzle, grizzled, grizzly, groggy, gross-headed, gruel,
gutless, haggard, half-witted, hard, hardened, harping, hazy,
heartless, heavy, hebetate, hebetudinous, ho-hum, hollow, homely,
homespun, hopeless, hueless, humdrum, hypochromic, icy, imbecile,
immovable, impassible, impassive, imperceptive, impercipient,
imperturbable, impotent, in a stupor, in abeyance, in suspense,
inactive, inane, inanimate, indifferent, indistinct, inert,
inexcitable, infecund, infertile, inirritable, insensate,
insensible, insensitive, insentient, insipid, insouciant,
insusceptible, inured, invariable, irksome, iron-gray, jaded,
jejune, jog-trot, kayo, keep within bounds, knock out,
knock senseless, knock stiff, knock unconscious, lackadaisical,
lackluster, languid, languorous, latent, lay, lay low, lay out,
lead-gray, leaden, lean, lenify, lessen, lethargic, lifeless,
lighten, limber, limp, listless, literal, livid, logy, long-winded,
low-spirited, lowering, lull, lumpish, lurid, lusterless, lustless,
marrowless, mat, matter-of-fact, mealy, mediocre, medium, middling,
mitigate, moderate, modest, modulate, mollify, monotone,
monotonous, moribund, moronic, mouse-colored, mouse-gray, mousy,
muddy, muffle, muffled, mull, mundane, murky, mute, muted,
namby-pamby, narcotize, natural, neat, nerveless, neutral,
nonchalant, nonemotional, nubilous, numb, numbed, numbing,
numskulled, obdurate, objective, obscure, obtund, obtundent,
obtuse, of a kind, of a sort, of sorts, opaque, open, ordinary,
out of touch, overcast, overclouded, pad, pale, pale as death,
pale-faced, palliate, pallid, palsy, paralyze, passable,
passionless, passive, pasty, patient, pearl, pearl-gray, pearly,
pedestrian, peroxide, phlegmatic, pithless, plain, plain-speaking,
plain-spoken, play down, plodding, pluckless, poetryless,
pointless, poky, ponderous, pooped, poultice, pour balm into,
pour oil on, powerless, prolix, prosaic, prosing, prosy, pure,
put to sleep, rattle, reduce, reduce the temperature, relieve,
repress, resigned, respectable, restrain, retard, retund, rocky,
rounded, rubbery, rustic, sad, sallow, salve, sap, sapless, sated,
sedentary, self-absorbed, severe, shake, shake up, sickly, silver,
silver-gray, silvered, silvery, simple, simple-speaking,
simpleminded, sinewless, singsong, slack, slacken, slake,
slate-colored, slaty, sleeping, sleepy, slow, slow down,
slow-witted, sluggish, slumbering, smoke-gray, smoky, smoldering,
smoothed, smother, smothered, so-so, sober, sober down, soft,
soft-pedal, soften, soften up, softened, solemn, somber, somnolent,
soothe, soporific, sordo, soulless, spare, spineless, spiritless,
spunkless, stagnant, stagnating, staid, standing, stark, static,
steady, steel-gray, steely, sterile, stiff, stifle, stifled,
stodgy, stoic, stolid, stone-colored, stop, straightforward,
strengthless, stuffy, stultified, stun, stupe, stupefied, stupefy,
stupid, subdue, subdued, subfusc, sunless, superficial, supine,
suppress, suspended, tallow-faced, tame, tarnish, tasteless, taupe,
tedious, temper, thick, thick-brained, thick-headed, thick-pated,
thick-skinned, thick-witted, thickskulled, tiresome, tiring,
tolerable, tone down, toneless, torpid, treadmill, tune down, turn,
unadorned, unaffected, unaffectionate, unaroused, unbrace,
uncaring, uncolored, unconcerned, undermine, underplay,
undisturbable, unedged, unembellished, unemotional, uneventful,
unfanciful, unfeeling, unfelt, unflappable, unhardened, unideal,
unidealistic, unimaginative, unimpassioned, unimpressionable,
uninspired, uninterested, uninteresting, uninventive, unirritable,
unlively, unloving, unman, unnerve, unnerved, unnervous,
unoriginal, unpassionate, unperceptive, unpoetic, unpoetical,
unpointed, unresponding, unresponsive, unromantic, unromanticized,
unsharp, unsharpened, unstrengthen, unstring, unstrung,
unsusceptible, unsympathetic, untouchable, unvarnished, unvarying,
vapid, vegetable, vegetative, wan, wash out, washed-out, waxen,
weak, weaken, weakly, weariful, wearisome, weary, whey-faced,
white, whiten, wishy-washy, withdrawn, wooden, world-weary
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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