Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Dull   /dəl/   Listen
Dull

adjective
(compar. duller; superl. dullest)
1.
Lacking in liveliness or animation.  "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"
2.
Emitting or reflecting very little light.  "Dull silver badly in need of a polish" , "A dull sky"
3.
Being or made softer or less loud or clear.  Synonyms: muffled, muted, softened.  "Muffled drums" , "The muffled noises of the street" , "Muted trumpets"
4.
So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness.  Synonyms: boring, deadening, ho-hum, irksome, slow, tedious, tiresome, wearisome.  "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" , "Tedious days on the train" , "The tiresome chirping of a cricket" , "Other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome"
5.
(of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted.
6.
Not keenly felt.  "Dull pain"
7.
Slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity.  Synonyms: dense, dim, dumb, obtuse, slow.  "Never met anyone quite so dim" , "Although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick" , "Dumb officials make some really dumb decisions" , "He was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse" , "Worked with the slow students"
8.
(of business) not active or brisk.  Synonyms: slow, sluggish.  "A sluggish market"
9.
Not having a sharp edge or point.
10.
Blunted in responsiveness or sensibility.  "So exhausted she was dull to what went on about her"
11.
Not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft.  Synonym: thudding.  "Thudding bullets"
12.
Darkened with overcast.  Synonym: leaden.  "A dull sky" , "The sky was leaden and thick"
verb
(past & past part. duller; pres. part. dulling)
1.
Make dull in appearance.
2.
Become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness.
3.
Deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping.  Synonyms: damp, dampen, muffle, mute, tone down.
4.
Make numb or insensitive.  Synonyms: benumb, blunt, numb.
5.
Make dull or blunt.  Synonym: blunt.
6.
Become less interesting or attractive.  Synonym: pall.
7.
Make less lively or vigorous.



Related searches:
dull-purple
dull-white
dullard
dulled
dullness


WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Dull" Quotes from Famous Books



... Last night they were shunting and jigging us about all night between Rouen and Sotteville. Slow bumping over hundreds of points is much worse to sleep in than fast travelling. In either case you wake whenever you pull up or start off. But we shall miss the train when we get into a dull hotel bedroom or a billet, or perhaps a tent. My month at Le Mans in Madame's beautiful French bed was the one ...
— Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 • Anonymous
... a realist in the sense that he keeps close to reality, truth, and nature. But in the pursuit of photographic faithfulness to life, he never allows himself to be tedious and dull, as some of the best representatives of the school think it incumbent upon them to be. His descriptions are never overburdened with wearisome details; his action is rapid; the events are never to be foreseen a hundred pages beforehand; he keeps his readers ...
— Rudin • Ivan Turgenev
... terrifying thing happened. The earth under his feet began to shake. At first he could not believe it, but when he steadied himself and watched closely, the oscillating motion was undoubtedly there. It was accompanied, too, by a rumble, dull and low, but which steadily grew louder. It seemed to Dick that the round pit was the ...
— The Last of the Chiefs - A Story of the Great Sioux War • Joseph Altsheler
... and his plants had been everything to him. Now he began to surround himself with an infinity of feminine belongings, and to promise himself an infinity of feminine blessings, wondering much that he should have been content to pass so long a portion of his life in the dull seclusion which he had endured. He was not by nature an impatient man; but now he became impatient, longing for the fruition of his new idea of happiness,—longing to have that as his own which he certainly loved beyond all ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... knowledge of the circumstances, justify my conduct in my own eyes; but in what light will it appear to my brother! For, can it be denied that the insolence of these foreign teachers waxes daily more audacious? They have desecrated our sanctuaries, unsettled the dull minds of the people, and conjured up amongst them a spirit of delusion. Impure spirits have mingled among the insurgents, horrible deeds have been perpetrated, which to think of makes one shudder, and of these a circumstantial account must be transmitted ...
— Egmont - A Tragedy In Five Acts • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com