dull
Americanadjective
-
duller,
comparative
-
dullest
superlative
-
not sharp; blunt.
a dull knife.
-
causing boredom; tedious; uninteresting.
a dull sermon.
- Antonyms:
- interesting
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- stolid, unintelligent, unimaginative
- Antonyms:
- bright
-
lacking keenness of perception in the senses or feelings; insensible; unfeeling.
-
not intense or acute.
a dull pain.
verb (used with or without object)
-
dulls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dulled,
past participle, past
-
dulling
present participle
adjective
-
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
verb
Synonym Usage
Dull, blunt refer to the edge or point of an instrument, tool, or the like. Dull implies a lack or a loss of keenness or sharpness: a dull razor or saw. Blunt may mean the same or may refer to an edge or point not intended to be keen or sharp: a blunt or stub pen; a blunt foil. Dull, blunt, slow, stupid are applied to mental qualities. Dull implies obtuseness, lack of imagination: a dull child. Blunt implies loss of original keenness of intelligence through disease, sad experience, or the like: His critical faculties were blunt. Slow applies to a sluggish intellect: a slow mind. Stupid implies slowness of mental processes, but also lack of intelligence, wisdom, prudence, etc.: a stupid person.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dullsimple
-
dullssimple
-
have dulledperfect
-
has dulledperfect
-
am dullingprogressive
-
are dullingprogressive
-
is dullingprogressive
-
have been dullingperfect progressive
-
has been dullingperfect progressive
Past
-
dulledsimple
-
had dulledperfect
-
was dullingprogressive
-
were dullingprogressive
-
had been dullingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dull
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English; akin to Old English dol “foolish, stupid”; cognate with German toll
Explanation
To dull something means to take away its edge, its energy, or its excitement. "Watching that movie will dull your senses, until you fall asleep." Let’s think of something interesting about dull. Hmm. It can be a verb or an adjective! So when you’re reading a dull or boring word description, for instance, it can dull or deaden your appetite for reading more word descriptions. That’s pretty fascinating, no? You can even use it for physical things, like a knife, which you can dull, that is, make it less sharp. You can even dull something visual, making it lacking in light, or use it describe pain — you know, the kind that is not sharp, just an ache. Exciting? No — dull.
Vocabulary lists containing dull
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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The ACT Reading Test: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And while Grande later insisted the break was pre-planned and not “reactive or impulsive,” there’s no doubt the announcement was timed to dull the cacophony of both the jeers and cheers.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
Besides the main storyline and a dull, time-padding smuggling operation to uncover, there’s little to do for the rest of the Broken Lizard team: Paul Soter, Eric Stolhanske and Steve Emme.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
If a wealth strategy sounds incredibly dull — like index funds or compounding interest — then it probably works.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
"My skin feels dull and textured and just looks more tired in general, and my chest feels heavier and sore."
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
With some ordinary dull adult voice droning on, so the greatest danger is that I might fall asleep.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
In “push-pull,” that meant a bright red popping out in the upper left makes the duller color in the lower right seem to recede even further.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
That show is growing duller, and more lethargic and repetitive, by the day, like watching reruns of a canceled sitcom.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026
There is apparently no way to make these things run any faster, but Glaser, who returned often to the stage, at least gave one the impression, between the duller stretches, that it was clipping along.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2025
In general, cold water sounds brighter and splashier, while hot water sounds duller and frothier.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2024
True, the wounds still hurt, but with a different quality of pain: not the deep life-sapping ache of the day before, but a smaller, duller sensation.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
For most of its long life, public nuisance was among the dullest legal actions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
“When you are a scientist, and you are trying to prove or disprove a notion, you work at the bench doing the dullest, most routine things over and over and over again,” Baltimore once explained.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025
Pandemic-era remote learning is well over, but for middle and high school students, school can still seem like an endless Zoom in the dullest sense of the word.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Sunday was one of the dullest games I have watched this year but there was still a fantastic atmosphere.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2023
Faced with an exciting question, science tended to provide the dullest possible answer.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
The mouths of journalists were agape, but time dulls horrific reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
But the passage of time naturally dulls the horror for people farther away.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2026
In theory, each ingredient plays a role: one dries secretions, another loosens phlegm, a third dulls the cough reflex.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
By refusing to commit to a disquieting atmosphere, Cregger dulls his provocation, making “Weapons” feel timid, even flippant, in the face of a genuine American crisis.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2025
It burns intensely and then dulls to an aching throb.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
The law’s shield is shattered, and its sword is dulled.
From Slate ● May 1, 2026
This constant exposure has dulled the shock of many controversies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
The bigger question now may be less about appearance and more about whether age and inactivity have dulled those attributes.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
For them, there will be no better feeling than paying off their mortgage and writing that last check — even if the satisfaction is slightly dulled because of your generosity.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026
The Cards of Deadly Fate had dulled her senses, erasing the edges of memories while she’d been suspended between life and death.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
Paradoxically, it is the unwavering commitment to a narrow range of recognizable figures, dulling in its totality, that turned his signature style into a full-blown brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
The higher costs have prompted chocolate makers to raise their prices, dulling consumers' appetite for the sweets.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
She said the government was not just waiting for the dulling to take place, and had invested £5m in interim, shorter-term road safety issues on the A9.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2025
Insect repellents are not meant to kill insects, but work by dulling their senses to prevent them from finding humans, according to the National Pesticide Information Center.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2024
The dimness soothed me, dulling the hard edges of the day.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
