| English Dictionary |
DULL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does dull mean?
• DULL (adjective)
The adjective DULL has 12 senses:
1. lacking in liveliness or animation
2. emitting or reflecting very little light
3. being or made softer or less loud or clear
4. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
5. (of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted
6. not keenly felt
7. slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
8. (of business) not active or brisk
9. not having a sharp edge or point
10. blunted in responsiveness or sensibility
11. not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft
12. darkened with overcast
Familiarity information: DULL used as an adjective is familiar.
• DULL (verb)
The verb DULL has 7 senses:
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
4. make numb or insensitive
5. make dull or blunt
6. become less interesting or attractive
7. make less lively or vigorous
Familiarity information: DULL used as a verb is common.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: dullest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Lacking in liveliness or animation
Context example:
fell back into one of her dull moods
Similar:
drab; dreary (lacking in liveliness or charm or surprise)
lackluster; lacklustre; lusterless; lustreless (lacking brilliance or vitality)
humdrum; monotonous (tediously repetitious or lacking in variety)
heavy; leaden (lacking lightness or liveliness)
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 2
Meaning:
Emitting or reflecting very little light
Context example:
a dull sky
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:
Being or made softer or less loud or clear
Synonyms:
dull; muffled; muted; softened
Context example:
muted trumpets
Similar:
soft ((of sound) relatively low in volume)
Sense 4
Meaning:
So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
Synonyms:
boring; deadening; dull; ho-hum; irksome; slow; tedious; tiresome; wearisome
Context example:
other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome
Similar:
uninteresting (arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement)
Derivation:
dullness (the quality of lacking interestingness)
Sense 5
Meaning:
(of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted
Context example:
dull greens and blues
Similar:
unsaturated ((of color) not chromatically pure; diluted)
Derivation:
dullness (a lack of visual brightness)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Not keenly felt
Context example:
dull pain
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 7
Meaning:
Slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
Synonyms:
dense; dim; dull; dumb; obtuse; slow
Context example:
worked with the slow students
Similar:
stupid (lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity)
Derivation:
dullness (the quality of being slow to understand)
Sense 8
Meaning:
(of business) not active or brisk
Synonyms:
Context example:
a sluggish market
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 9
Meaning:
Not having a sharp edge or point
Context example:
the knife was too dull to be of any use
Similar:
blunt (used of a knife or other blade; not sharp)
unsharpened (not sharpened)
blunted; dulled (made dull or blunt)
edgeless (lacking a cutting edge)
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 10
Meaning:
Blunted in responsiveness or sensibility
Context example:
so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her
Similar:
insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)
Derivation:
dullness (lack of sensibility)
Sense 11
Meaning:
Not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft
Synonyms:
dull; thudding
Context example:
thudding bullets
Similar:
nonresonant; unreverberant (not reverberant; lacking a tendency to reverberate)
Sense 12
Meaning:
Darkened with overcast
Synonyms:
dull; leaden
Context example:
the sky was leaden and thick
Similar:
cloudy (full of or covered with clouds)
Derivation:
dullness (a lack of visual brightness)
| Conjugation: |
... he / she / it dulls Past simple: dulled
Past participle: dulled
-ing form: dulling
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make dull in appearance
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Context example:
Age had dulled the surface
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 2
Meaning:
Become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Context example:
the varnished table top dulled with time
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:
Deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Synonyms:
damp; dampen; dull; muffle; mute; tone down
Hypernyms (to "dull" is one way to...):
soften (make (images or sounds) soft or softer)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sense 4
Meaning:
Make numb or insensitive
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Synonyms:
Context example:
The shock numbed her senses
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 5
Meaning:
Make dull or blunt
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Synonyms:
blunt; dull
Context example:
Too much cutting dulls the knife's edge
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:
Become less interesting or attractive
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
dull; pall
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 7
Meaning:
Make less lively or vigorous
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Context example:
Middle age dulled her appetite for travel
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
Context examples
"Oh, do be more plain to me! Perhaps grief and trouble are dulling my brain."
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The sea had turned a dull leaden grey and grown rougher, and was now tossing foaming whitecaps to the sky.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
At length she turned into a dull, dark street, where the noise and crowd were lost; and I said, “We may speak to her now”; and, mending our pace, we went after her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was a strange following his dull eyes saw.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
In France the young girls have a dull time of it till they are married, when 'Vive la liberte!' becomes their motto.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“I am dull indeed not to have understood its possibilities.”
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Save the dull piping of insects and the sough of the leaves, there was silence everywhere—the sweet restful silence of nature.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
If you're a woman, you might feel a dull pain during your period.
(Pelvic Pain, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
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