dull

adjective

1. 1

   Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

   All these knives are dull.

2. 2

   Boring; not exciting or interesting.

   He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.

   "You are very dull this morning, Sheriff," said the youngest daughter of the house, who, being the baby and pretty, had grown pettishly privileged in speech.

   But there we were given only the dullest, driest, pemmicanised forms like The Student's Hume, Once I had a hundred pages of The Student's Hume as a holiday task.

3. 3

   Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

   Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.

   a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror

   A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

   The young bird had the plumage of the saddleback, not the even chestnut of the jackbird, although its plumage was rather duller than that of the adult.

4. 4

   Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.

   She is not bred so dull but she can learn.

   dull at classical learning

   She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’ ¶ ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

5. 5

   Sluggish, listless.

   This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.

   O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.

   […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.

6. 6

   Bored, depressed, down.

   I felt dull all day.

7. 7

   Cloudy, overcast.

   It's a dull day.

8. 8

   Insensible; unfeeling.

   Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.

9. 9

   Heavy; lifeless; inert.

   the dull earth

   c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.

10. 10

    Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.

    Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.

11. 11

    Not clear, muffled. (of a noise or sound)

verb

1. 1

   To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

   Years of misuse have dulled the tools.

   This […] dulled their swords.

2. 2

   To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

   He drinks to dull the pain.

   Those [drugs] she has / Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.

   Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.

3. 3

   To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

   A razor will dull with use.

4. 4

   To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

noun

1. 1

   archaicA noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an animal, especially a fish.

   Play fair, boys. No dynamite nor "dulling." The deadly "dull," or wire noose, is a fatal weapon against a trout.

verb

1. 1

   archaicTo fish (or snare an animal, especially a fish) with such a noose.

   I hope that the barbarous practice called dulling has gone out of fashion.

   Play fair, boys. No dynamite nor "dulling." The deadly "dull," or wire noose, is a fatal weapon against a trout.

   In Irish-English, “dulling for trout” is well known,—the fish as they lie still in a pool are snared with a noose of horsehair.

Forms

plural

dulls

comparative

duller

superlative

dullest

past tense

dulled

past participle

dulled

present participle

dulling

third person singular

dulls