# dull
## English
### Alternative forms

* dul, dulle (all obsolete)

### Etymology

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

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

### Adjective

dull (comparative duller, superlative dullest)
* Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
    Synonym: blunt
    Antonym: sharp
    All these knives are dull.
* 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.
* 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.
* Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stupid
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:intelligent
** c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:She is not bred so dull but she can learn.
** 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:dull at classical learning
** 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’ ¶ ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
* Sluggish, listless.
    Synonyms: ponderous, slothful; see also Thesaurus:lazy, Thesaurus:slow
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 13:xiii:This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
* Bored, depressed, down.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:be bored, Thesaurus:sad
    I felt dull all day.
* Cloudy, overcast.
    It's a dull day.
* Insensible; unfeeling.
    Synonyms: emotionless; see also Thesaurus:alexithymic
** 1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Knight of Malta”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii:Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.
* Heavy; lifeless; inert.
    Synonyms: immobile; see also Thesaurus:inactive, Thesaurus:stationary
** c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:the dull earth
** c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk
    As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.
* (of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
    Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
* Not clear, muffled. (of a noise or sound)

#### Derived terms

* all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
* dullard
* dull as dishwater
* dull as ditchwater
* dullen
* dullery
* dull fish
* dullhead
* dull-headed
* dullish
* dull-minded
* dullness
* dullsome
* dullsville
* dullwit
* dull-witted
* dully
* fordull
* never a dull moment
* semidull
* too much bed makes a dull head
* undull

#### Related terms

* bedole
* Dollard

#### Translations

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

### Verb

dull (third-person singular simple present dulls, present participle dulling, simple past and past participle dulled)
* (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 Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:This […] dulled their swords.
* (transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
    He drinks to dull the pain.
** 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]:Those [drugs] she has / Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.
** 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord:Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.
* (intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
    A razor will dull with use.
* To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

#### Synonyms

* dullen

#### Derived terms

* undullable
* undulled

#### Translations
### References

* “dull”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “dull”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* ULDL

## Catalan
### Alternative forms

* duïll, dui

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈduʎ]

### Noun

dull m (plural dulls)
* (nautical) scupper
    Synonym: embornal
* bung-hole

### References

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

### Further reading

* “dull” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Welsh
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (North Wales) IPA: /dɨ̞ɬ/
* (South Wales) IPA: /dɪɬ/

### Noun

dull m (plural dulliau)
* 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

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

### References

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

### Further reading

* 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