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Wiktionary

dull

See also: Dull

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-West Germanic *dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, from earlier *dwulaz, a variant of *dwalaz (“stunned, mad, foolish, misled”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-, *dʰewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”).

Cognate with Scots dull, doll (“slow to understand or hear, deaf, dull”), North Frisian dol (“rash, unthinking, giddy, flippant”), Dutch dol (“crazy, mad, insane”), Low German dul, dol (“mad, silly, stupid, fatuous”), German toll (“crazy, mad, wild, fantastic”), Danish dval (“foolish, absurd”), Icelandic dulur (“secretive, silent”), West-Flemish dul (angry, furious).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /dʌl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌl

Adjective

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dull (comparative duller, superlative dullest)

  1. Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
    Antonym: sharp
    All these knives are dull.
  2. Boring; not exciting or interesting.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:boring
    He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.
    • 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:
      "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.
    • 2012, Winston S. Churchill, Martin Gilbert, Churchill: The Power of Words, page 14:
      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. Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
    Synonyms: lackluster, matte; see also Thesaurus:dim
    Antonym: bright
    Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.
    a dull fire or lamp;  a dull red or yellow;  a dull mirror
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
      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.
    • 1959, Robert Adams Wilson, Bird Islands of New Zealand, page 67:
      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. Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stupid
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:intelligent
  5. Sluggish, listless.
  6. Bored, depressed, down.
    I felt dull all day.
  7. Cloudy, overcast.
    It's a dull day.
  8. Insensible; unfeeling.
  9. Heavy; lifeless; inert.
  10. (of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
    Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
  11. Not clear, muffled. (of a noise or sound)

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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dull (third-person singular simple present dulls, present participle dulling, simple past and past participle dulled)

  1. (transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
    Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
    • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:
      This […] dulled their swords.
  2. (transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
    He drinks to dull the pain.
  3. (intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
    A razor will dull with use.
  4. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old Catalan duyll, from Late Latin ducīculus, diminutive from Latin ducem (“guide”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dull m (plural dulls)

  1. (nautical) scupper
    Synonym: embornal
  2. bung-hole

References

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  • “dull” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Further reading

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Welsh

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Etymology

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Morris Jones traces this from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, point out”) via a formation *doix-sl-,[1] but Russell instead derives this from *to-ud-lom.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dull m (plural dulliau)

  1. method
    • 1938, John Pierce, “foreword”, in Dan Lenni'r Nos [Under Cover of Night], Liverpool: Gwasg y Brython, page 5:
      Gan i'r dull a gymerais o'r blaen, o gyrraedd amrywiol ddosbarthiadau o ddarllenwyr, ei gymeradwyo ei hun i gynifer, glynais wrtho, a rhoi cyfieithiadau a ffurfiau llenyddol ar waelod y tudalennau.
      As the method I had taken before, of reaching various classes of readers, appealed to so many, I stuck to it, and put translations and learned forms at the bottom of the pages.

Mutation

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Mutated forms of dull
radical soft nasal aspirate
dull ddull null unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

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  1. ^ Morris Jones, John (1913) A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative, Oxford: Clarendon Press, § 95 ii 2
  2. ^ Russell, Paul (1988) “The Celtic Preverb USS and Related Matters”, in Ériu‎[1], volume 39, Royal Irish Academy, →ISSN, →JSTOR, pages 95–126

Further reading

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  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “dull”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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