DUN (dunned, dunner, dunnest, dunning)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: dunned    , dunner    , dunnest    , dunning   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dun mean? 

• DUN (noun)
  The noun DUN has 2 senses:

1. horse of a dull brownish grey color

2. a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color

  Familiarity information: DUN used as a noun is rare.

• DUN (adjective)
  The adjective DUN has 1 sense:

1. of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color

  Familiarity information: DUN used as an adjective is very rare.

• DUN (verb)
  The verb DUN has 4 senses:

1. treat cruelly

2. persistently ask for overdue payment

3. cure by salting

4. make a dun color

  Familiarity information: DUN used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Horse of a dull brownish grey color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("dun" is a kind of...):

mount; riding horse; saddle horse (a lightweight horse kept for riding only)

Derivation:

dun (make a dun color)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

dun; fawn; grayish brown; greyish brown

Context example:

she wore dun

Hypernyms ("dun" is a kind of...):

light brown (a brown that is light but unsaturated)

Derivation:

dun (make a dun color)

• DUN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color

Context example:

the dun and dreary prairie

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

• DUN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dun    ... he / she / it duns   
Past simple: dunned   
Past participle: dunned   
-ing form: dunning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Treat cruelly

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment

Context example:

The children tormented the stuttering teacher

Hypernyms (to "dun" is one way to...):

beset; chevvy; chevy; chivvy; chivy; harass; harry; hassle; molest; plague; provoke (annoy continually or chronically)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dun"):

madden (drive up the wall; go on someone's nerves)

hamstring (make ineffective or powerless)

badger; beleaguer; bug; pester; tease (annoy persistently)

oppress; persecute (cause to suffer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Persistently ask for overdue payment

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

The grocer dunned his customers every day by telephone

Hypernyms (to "dun" is one way to...):

demand (request urgently and forcefully)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cure by salting

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

dun codfish

Hypernyms (to "dun" is one way to...):

cure (prepare by drying, salting, or chemical processing in order to preserve)

Domain category:

cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make a dun color

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "dun" is one way to...):

darken (make dark or darker)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

dun (horse of a dull brownish grey color)

dun (a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color)

 Context examples 

He had been dunning for it for a year and a half.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There was a great deal of good in Mrs. Micawber's heart, which had not been dunned out of it in all those many years.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“What, am I to be dunned in my own private room? Where’s Mellish? Where’s Townshend? What the deuce is Tom Tring doing?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could see no marks to guide me, but the carpet was of a dun colour, which lends itself very well to examination.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Leaning over the battlements and looking far down, I surveyed the grounds laid out like a map: the bright and velvet lawn closely girdling the grey base of the mansion; the field, wide as a park, dotted with its ancient timber; the wood, dun and sere, divided by a path visibly overgrown, greener with moss than the trees were with foliage; the church at the gates, the road, the tranquil hills, all reposing in the autumn day's sun; the horizon bounded by a propitious sky, azure, marbled with pearly white.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He listened absently to a long dun from the type-writer people, his mind busy with ways and means of finding a job.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A rainy night had been followed by a glorious morning, and the heath-covered countryside, with the glowing clumps of flowering gorse, seemed all the more beautiful to eyes which were weary of the duns and drabs and slate greys of London.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)