dull
/dʌl/ adjective, verb, noun, proper noun
Forms duller dullest dulls dulling dulled dul dulle
- adjective Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp. “All these knives are dull.”
- adjective Boring; not exciting or interesting. “He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.”
- adjective Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness. “Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.”
- adjective Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
- adjective Sluggish, listless.
- adjective Bored, depressed, down. “I felt dull all day.”
- adjective Cloudy, overcast. “It's a dull day.”
- adjective Insensible; unfeeling.
- verb (transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp. “Years of misuse have dulled the tools.”
- verb (transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy. “He drinks to dull the pain.”
- verb (intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull. “A razor will dull with use.”
- verb To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
- noun (Ireland, Southern US, now rare or obsolete) A noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an animal, especially a fish.
- verb (Ireland, Southern US, now rare or obsolete) To fish (or snare an animal, especially a fish) with such a noose.
- proper noun A surname. of Scottish and German origin.
- proper noun A village in Perth and Kinross council area, Scotland.
Synonyms
blunt banal basic mindless beat blah commonplace bland boring cold colourless corny drab stuffy dreich drowsy dull as dishwater flat heavy going ho-hum muffle mute damp dampen tone down numb benumb pall muffled muted
Antonyms
sharp bright astute brainy brilliant clever educated genius gifted hivey ingenious intellectual sharpen lively
Etymology
From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-West Germanic *dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, from earlier *dwulaz, a variant of *dwalaz (“stunned, mad, foolish, misled”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-, *dʰewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”).
Cognate with Scots dull, doll (“slow to understand or hear, deaf, dull”), North Frisian dol (“rash, unthinking, giddy, flippant”), Dutch dol (“crazy, mad, insane”), Low German dul, dol (“mad, silly, stupid, fatuous”), German toll (“crazy, mad, wild, fantastic”), Danish dval (“foolish, absurd”), Icelandic dulur (“secretive, silent”), West-Flemish dul (angry, furious).
Probably from Irish dul, dol (“loop, noose, snare”).
* As a German surname, from dialectal tull (“stout, corpulent”) (see the adjective doll), or a variant of Thiel. See Duell.
* As a Scottish surname, it is a habitational name from Dull in Perthshire (see Etymology 2).
* As an English surname, variant of Dill, Doel.
Possibly from Pictish [Term?], cognate with Proto-Brythonic *dol (“meadow”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. "Dull at classical learning." Thackeray.
- adjective Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.
- verb To deprive of sharpness of edge or point. "This . . . dulled their swords." Bacon.
- verb To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “dull”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details