dull

Meanings

Adjective

• Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
• Boring; not exciting or interesting.
• Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
• Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
• Sluggish, listless.
• Cloudy, overcast.
• Insensible; unfeeling.
• Heavy; lifeless; inert.
• Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
• Not clear, muffled.

Verb

• To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
• To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
• To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
• To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Related

Similar words

• lackluster, matte
• dullen

Opposite words

• bright
• intelligent
• sharp

Origin

• From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol ("dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous"), from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, a variant of *dwalaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-, *dʰewel-. Cognate with Scots dull, doll, North Frisian dol ("rash, unthinking, giddy, flippant"), Dutch dol ("crazy, mad, insane"), Low German dul, dol, German toll ("crazy, mad, wild, fantastic"), Danish dval ("foolish, absurd"), Icelandic dulur ("secretive, silent"), West-Flemish dul (angry, furious).