dull
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /dʌl/
rhymes: -ʌl
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: duller
form: dullest
form: dul
form: dulle
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).
Senses: examples: text: All these knives are dull.
synonyms: blunt
antonyms: sharp
glosses: Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
examples: text: He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.
text: "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.
ref: 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:
text: 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.
ref: 2012, Winston S. Churchill, Martin Gilbert, Churchill: The Power of Words, page 14:
synonyms: word: banal
word: beat
word: blah
word: bland
word: boring
word: cold
word: colourless
word: drab
word: dreich
word: drowsy
word: dull
word: dull as dishwater
word: flat
word: ho-hum
word: humdrum
word: insipid
word: lackluster
word: lame
word: languid
word: lifeless
word: longsome
word: monotonous
word: mundane
word: no fun at parties
word: plain
word: plodding
word: prosaic
word: prosy
word: pedantic
word: pedestrian
word: static
word: straightforward
word: snoozeworthy
word: soporific
word: tedious
word: uncool
word: wan
word: weaksauce
word: wooden
word: uninteresting
word: stodgy
word: vapid
word: vanilla
glosses: Boring; not exciting or interesting.
examples: text: Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.
text: a dull fire or lamp;  a dull red or yellow;  a dull mirror
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1959, Robert Adams Wilson, Bird Islands of New Zealand, page 67:
synonyms: word: lackluster
word: matte
word: bland
word: colourless
word: dim
word: dingy
word: dull
word: faint
word: lackluster
word: leaden
word: muddy
word: sad
word: sober
word: uncolorful
word: unholiday
word: wan
antonyms: bright
glosses: Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
examples: text: She is not bred so dull but she can learn.
ref: 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]:
text: dull at classical learning
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: 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?’
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: addlebrained
word: addlepated
word: airheaded
word: bee-brained
word: beef-witted
word: beefheaded
word: beetle-headed
word: birdbrained
word: blockheaded
word: Boeotian
word: boneheaded
word: boofheaded
word: brainless
word: bubbleheaded
word: buffle-headed
word: bullet-headed
word: cerebrally challenged
word: childish
word: chowderheaded
word: chuckleheaded
word: crackbrained
word: cretinous
word: dense
word: dented
word: dim-bulb
word: dim-headed
word: dim-witted
word: dim
word: doltish
word: dopey
word: dozy
word: drowsy
word: dull-headed
word: dull-minded
word: dull-witted
word: dull
word: dumber than a box of rocks
word: dumb
word: dunderheaded
word: empty-headed
word: fatheaded
word: feeble-minded
word: flea-brained
word: foolish
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: half-brained
word: half-witted
word: hammer-headed
word: idiotic
word: imbecilic
word: inane
word: insipid
word: intellectually challenged
word: knuckleheaded
word: lamebrained
word: lowbrow
word: lumpish
word: lunkheaded
word: mentally challenged
word: mentally retarded
word: mindless
word: monosynaptic
word: moronic
word: muttonheaded
word: nitwitted
word: numbskulled
word: oafish
word: obtuse
word: peabrained
word: pratty
word: pudding-headed
word: puerile
word: purblind
word: quarter-witted
word: retarded
word: rockheaded
word: sharp as a bowling ball
word: sheep-headed
word: simple
word: slow-witted
word: slow
word: smooth-brained
word: stolid
word: stupid
word: thick-skulled
word: thickheaded
word: thickwitted
word: thick
word: unapprehensive
word: unclever
word: unintelligent
word: unsmart
word: vacant
word: vacuous
word: witless
word: wooden-headed
word: wool-headed
word: woolly-headed
word: woolly-minded
word: dumb as a bag of hammers
word: dumb as a box of rocks
word: dumb as a doorknob
word: dumb as an ox
word: dumb as a post
word: dumb as a sack of hammers
word: dumb as dirt
word: dumber than a rock
word: not the sharpest crayon in the box
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: not the sharpest tool in the shed
word: thick as a brick
word: thick as a plank
word: thick as champ
word: thick as mince
word: thick as two short planks
word: thick as a whale omelette
word: ass-brained
word: fuckwitted
word: shit-for-brains
word: thick as pig shit
antonyms: word: brainless
word: dumb
word: foolish
word: idiotic
word: imbecile
word: insensible
word: lowbrow
word: mindless
word: stupid
word: unintelligent
word: witless
glosses: Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
examples: text: This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 13:xiii:
text: O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: […] 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: ponderous
word: slothful
word: lazy
word: fainéant
word: bone-idle
word: idle
word: indolent
word: inert
word: lackadaisical
word: lither
word: slothful
word: work-shy
word: sluggish
word: swear
word: torpid
word: crawling
word: languid
word: languorous
word: draggy
word: creeping
word: dreich
word: gastropodous
word: glacial
word: heavy-footed
word: inching
word: inert
word: labored
word: leaden
word: lead-footed
word: lethargic
word: low-speed
word: lumbering
word: plodding
word: pokey
word: ponderous
word: slothlike
word: slow
word: slow as a snail
word: slow as Christmas
word: slow as molasses
word: slow as molasses in January
word: slowfooted
word: sluggish
word: stately
word: steady
word: subglacial
word: sullen
word: tardigrade
word: tedious
word: testudineous
word: torpid
word: unspeedy
glosses: Sluggish, listless.
examples: text: I felt dull all day.
synonyms: word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
glosses: Bored, depressed, down.
examples: text: It's a dull day.
glosses: Cloudy, overcast.
examples: text: Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: emotionless
word: alexithymic
word: apathistical
word: clinical
word: dull
word: cold-blooded
word: cold-hearted
word: dead inside
word: dispassionate
word: emotionless
word: immovable
word: impassible
word: impassive
word: insensible
word: nonemotional
word: nonfeeling
word: nonpassionate
word: nonsentimental
word: stolid
word: unemotional
word: unfeeling
word: unmovable
word: unpassionate
word: unsentimental
glosses: Insensible; unfeeling.
examples: text: the dull earth
ref: 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]:
text: c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk
As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.
synonyms: word: immobile
word: abeyant
word: at rest
word: cessant
word: dormant
word: dull
word: fallow
word: idle
word: inactive
word: inert
word: languid
word: latent
word: nonactive
word: quiescent
word: silent
word: sedent
word: sedentary
word: slow
word: suspended
word: torpid
word: unactive
word: unbusy
word: unemployed
word: unoccupied
word: at rest
word: dull
word: impassive
word: inanimate
word: lifeless
word: motionless
word: sedent
word: sedentary
word: stationary
word: still
word: stock-still
word: torpid
word: unmoved
word: unmoving
glosses: Heavy; lifeless; inert.
examples: text: Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
glosses: Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
raw_tags: of pain etc
glosses: 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