bland
[bland]
- pleasantly gentle or agreeable: a bland, affable manner.
- soothing or balmy, as air: a bland southern breeze.
- nonirritating, as food or medicines: a bland diet.
- not highly flavored; mild; tasteless: a bland sauce.
- lacking in special interest, liveliness, individuality, etc.; insipid; dull: a bland young man; a bland situation comedy.
- unemotional, indifferent, or casual: his bland acknowledgment of guilt.
Origin of bland
First recorded in 1590–1600, bland is from the Latin word blandus of a smooth tongue, pleasant, soothing
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. affable, mild, amiable; suave, urbane. 2, 3. soft, mild.
Antonyms
1. cruel; boorish. 2. harsh. 3. irritating.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for blandness
Contemporary Examples
But surely there is something to hope for in a car journey that is neither violence nor blandness?
This track gives us hilarious lines and moments rivaling even the blandness of “Yesterday was Thursday…Today it is Friday.”
But his utterances on Sunday demonstrated only that his unerring talent for blandness will do little to get America back to work.
Conan was always the safe, mild-mannered choice to replace Jay Leno, who is blandness incarnate.
Historical Examples
Her blandness was beyond all baiting; she professed she could be as still as a mouse.
The Tragic MuseHenry James
"Oh, yes, you will," and he smiled with a blandness that was maddening.
A Little Girl in Old DetroitAmanda Minnie Douglas
Wetter suddenly assumed an air of great dignity and blandness.
The King's MirrorAnthony Hope
She threw into her smile all the blandness her sex alone can command.
The Heart of UnagaRidgwell Cullum
Jermyn had turned round his savage side, and the blandness was out of sight.
Felix Holt, The RadicalGeorge Eliot
bland
- devoid of any distinctive or stimulating characteristics; uninteresting; dullbland food
- gentle and agreeable; suave
- (of the weather) mild and soothing
- unemotional or unmoveda bland account of atrocities
See also bland out
Word Origin
C15: from Latin blandus flattering
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for blandness
bland
adj.
1660s, from Italian blando "delicate," or Old French bland "flattering, complimentary," both from Latin blandus "smooth-talking, flattering, alluring," perhaps from PIE *mlad-, nasalized variant of *meld-, extended form of root *mel- (see melt). Related: Blandly; blandness. Latin also had blandiloquentulus "flattering in speech," which might have yielded a useful English *blandiloquent.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper