| / English Dictionary |
DULL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(of business) not active or brisk
Example:
a sluggish market
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
inactive (lacking activity; lying idle or unused)
Domain category:
business; business enterprise; commercial enterprise (the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Emitting or reflecting very little light
Example:
a dull sky
Classified under:
Similar:
flat; mat; matt; matte; matted (not reflecting light; not glossy)
lackluster; lacklustre; lusterless; lustreless (lacking luster or shine)
soft; subdued (not brilliant or glaring)
Also:
unpolished (not carefully reworked or perfected or made smooth by polishing)
Attribute:
brightness; brightness level; light; luminance; luminosity; luminousness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Antonym:
bright (emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts)
Derivation:
dullness (a lack of visual brightness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted
Example:
dull greens and blues
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unsaturated ((of color) not chromatically pure; diluted)
Derivation:
dullness (a lack of visual brightness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
Example:
worked with the slow students
Synonyms:
dense; dim; dull; dumb; obtuse; slow
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
stupid (lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity)
Derivation:
dullness (the quality of being slow to understand)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Darkened with overcast
Example:
the sky was leaden and thick
Synonyms:
dull; leaden
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
cloudy (full of or covered with clouds)
Derivation:
dullness (a lack of visual brightness)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Not having a sharp edge or point
Example:
the knife was too dull to be of any use
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unsharpened (not sharpened)
edgeless (lacking a cutting edge)
blunted; dulled (made dull or blunt)
blunt (used of a knife or other blade; not sharp)
Antonym:
sharp (having or made by a thin edge or sharp point; suitable for cutting or piercing)
Derivation:
dullness (without sharpness or clearness of edge or point)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Not keenly felt
Example:
dull pain
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
deadened (made or become less intense)
Antonym:
sharp (keenly and painfully felt; as if caused by a sharp edge or point)
Derivation:
dullness (lack of sensibility)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Lacking in liveliness or animation
Example:
fell back into one of her dull moods
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
lackluster; lacklustre; lusterless; lustreless (lacking brilliance or vitality)
humdrum; monotonous (tediously repetitious or lacking in variety)
heavy; leaden (lacking lightness or liveliness)
drab; dreary (lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise)
bovine (dull and slow-moving and stolid; like an ox)
arid; desiccate; desiccated (lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless)
Also:
colorless; colourless (lacking in variety and interest)
unanimated (not animated or enlivened; dull)
spiritless (lacking ardor or vigor or energy)
Attribute:
dullness (the quality of lacking interestingness)
Antonym:
lively (full of life and energy)
Derivation:
dullness (the quality of lacking interestingness)
Sense 9
Meaning:
So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
Example:
other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome
Synonyms:
boring; deadening; dull; ho-hum; irksome; slow; tedious; tiresome; wearisome
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
uninteresting (arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement)
Derivation:
dullness (the quality of lacking interestingness)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Being or made softer or less loud or clear
Example:
muted trumpets
Synonyms:
dull; muffled; muted; softened
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
soft ((of sound) relatively low in volume)
Sense 11
Meaning:
Not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft
Example:
thudding bullets
Synonyms:
dull; thudding
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
nonresonant; unreverberant (not reverberant; lacking a tendency to reverberate)
Sense 12
Meaning:
Blunted in responsiveness or sensibility
Example:
so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)
Derivation:
dullness (lack of sensibility)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they dull ... he / she / it dulls
Past simple: dulled
Past participle: dulled
-ing form: dulling
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make less lively or vigorous
Example:
Middle age dulled her appetite for travel
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
weaken (become weaker)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dull"):
cloud (make milky or dull)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness
Example:
the varnished table top dulled with time
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sense 3
Meaning:
Become less interesting or attractive
Synonyms:
dull; pall
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Derivation:
dullard (a person who evokes boredom)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Make dull in appearance
Example:
Age had dulled the surface
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 5
Meaning:
Make dull or blunt
Example:
Too much cutting dulls the knife's edge
Synonyms:
blunt; dull
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Antonym:
sharpen (make sharp or sharper)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Make numb or insensitive
Example:
The shock numbed her senses
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
desensitise; desensitize (cause not to be sensitive)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Sense 7
Meaning:
Deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
Synonyms:
damp; dampen; dull; muffle; mute; tone down
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
soften (make (images or sounds) soft or softer)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Context examples:
Pain may be sharp or dull.
(Pain, NIH)
A light glimmered in each of his dull eyes, a tinge of colour came into his wax-like cheeks, and, opening his toothless mouth, he suddenly emitted a peculiar, bell-like, and most musical cry.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The skin has a tendency to look dull and greasy and feels oily to the touch.
(Oily Skin, NCI Thesaurus)
Words used to describe very dull pain include 'like a dull toothache,' 'dull pain,' and 'like a bruise.'
(NPS - Tell Us How Dull Your Pain Feels, NCI Thesaurus)
Martin, with the dull pain of despair at his heart, mechanically reaching for the tobacco and paper (which he no longer carried) to roll a cigarette, muttered something inarticulate, and Ruth went on.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
The new macrophages also had lower levels of another receptor that recognizes the brain chemical acetylcholine, which normally dulls inflammation in meningeal macrophages.
(Meningitis changes immune cell makeup in the mouse brain lining, National Institutes of Health)
A dull persistent (usually moderately intense) pain.
(Ache, NCI Thesaurus)
The skin becomes puffy around the eyes and on the cheeks and the face is dull and expressionless with thickened nose and lips.
(Myxedema, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
A disorder characterized by flaky and dull skin; the pores are generally fine, the texture is a papery thin texture.
(Dry Skin, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)
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