dull
not sharp; blunt: a dull knife.
causing boredom; tedious; uninteresting: a dull sermon.
not lively or spirited; listless.
not bright, intense, or clear; dim: a dull day; a dull sound.
having very little depth of color; lacking in richness or intensity of color.
slow in motion or action; not brisk; sluggish: a dull day in the stock market.
mentally slow; lacking brightness of mind; somewhat stupid; obtuse.
lacking keenness of perception in the senses or feelings; insensible; unfeeling.
not intense or acute: a dull pain.
to make or become dull.
Origin of dull
1synonym study For dull
Other words for dull
Opposites for dull
Other words from dull
- dullness, dulness, noun
- dully, adverb
- un·dulled, adjective
Words Nearby dull
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dull in a sentence
But the man appears so weary that I decide to skip the dull stuff and get to the heat.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe work at Art Basel is often interesting, often dull, and disproportionately decorative in nature.
Sneer and Clothing in Miami: Inside The $3 Billion Woodstock of Contemporary Art | Jay Michaelson | December 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHis course managed to be both dreadfully dull and appallingly difficult, with few light moments.
Stonewall Jackson, VMI’s Most Embattled Professor | S. C. Gwynne | November 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI was quoted in The New York Times saying, ‘We dared to be dull’.
Can Obama and a Republican Senate Find Common Ground? | Eleanor Clift | November 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAccording to Mack, he nearly killed her, broke 18 of her bones and, “sawed much of my hair off with [a] dull knife.”
The MMA Fighters Have Gone Crazy: ‘Mayhem’ Miller the Latest in a Long Line of Psycho Pugilists | Robert Silverman | October 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The policemen looked dull and heavy, as if never again would any one be criminal, and as if they had come to know it.
Bella Donna | Robert HichensDrone: the largest tube of a bag-pipe, giving forth a dull heavy tone.
Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan SwiftIt'll be beastly dull for her at The Warren, you see, poor girl; and she doesn't seem to jump at Spunyarn, though he does hang on.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsThey are grayish or colorless, and have a dull waxy look, as if cut from paraffin (Figs. 43 and 61).
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddThere was a distant, dull boom in the air—a repeated heavy thud.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard Kipling
British Dictionary definitions for dull
/ (dʌl) /
slow to think or understand; stupid
lacking in interest
lacking in perception or the ability to respond; insensitive
lacking sharpness; blunt
not acute, intense, or piercing
(of weather) not bright or clear; cloudy
not active, busy, or brisk
lacking in spirit or animation; listless
(of colour) lacking brilliance or brightness; sombre
not loud or clear; muffled
med (of sound elicited by percussion, esp of the chest) not resonant
to make or become dull
Origin of dull
1Derived forms of dull
- dullish, adjective
- dullness or dulness, noun
- dully, adverb
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with dull
In addition to the idiom beginning with dull
- dull as dishwater
also see:
- never a dull moment
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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