obtuse
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
geometry
mathematics
natural-sciences
sciences
zoology
Etymology: From Middle English obtuse, from Latin obtūsus (“blunt, dull; obtuse”), past participle of obtundere, from obtundō (“to batter, beat, strike; to blunt, dull”), from ob- (“against”) (see ob-) + tundō (“to beat, strike; to bruise, crush, pound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to hit; to push”)). More at obtund.
Inflected forms:
form: obtuser
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more obtuse
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: obtusest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most obtuse
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.
pos: adj
examples: For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not.
See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!
Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?
gloss: Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.
pos: adj
examples: The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […]
gloss: Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.
pos: adj
tags: specifically
examples: If you put foure Spleets in a Hiue, then cut their backes, where they must leane one against another, to square angles, such as be foure in a circle: if but three, cut them to obtuse angles, such as are three in a circle: (you may readily try them, before you put them in, by Moulds made iust to those formes) and so will they stand close and firme together.
More-over, as the Buildings Ambligon / May more receive then Mansions Oxigon / (Because th' acute, and the rect-Angles too, / Stride not so wide as obtuse Angles doe) / So doth the Circle in his Circuit span / More room then any other Figure can.
Obtuse angles of the through crossing. — The system of the two obtuse-angled points is especially termed the dead-crossing. […] The point itself, less liable to damage than that of the crossing proper, on account of its obtuse form and its position relatively to the wheels, acts the same part towards the tapered portion of the cut rail, as the wing-rail does with respect to the acute-angle of the crossing.
If he is standing close beside me I know that our separate axes of vision will meet at an acute angle in the centre of his object, and if we are further apart, at an obtuser angle.
gloss: Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.
pos: adj
examples: Unless A lies in that part of a semi-infinite strip bounded by AB outside a semi-circle of diameter AB, the triangle is obtuse, so that the probability of getting an obtuse triangle is equal to 1.
gloss: Intellectually dull or dim-witted.
pos: adj
examples: It was a merry time with Carrmen, Watermen, & Porters: for in this Eclipſe, many of them did nothing but drinke, domineere, and ſwagger in Alehouſes; but the often going to and fro of the Pot, made them talke of that, which they had nothing to doe withall, and many times their obtuſe apprehenſions would be medling with the warres betwixt the great Turke and Preſter Iohn, how it was likely to end; […]
When the elder Osborne gave what he called "a hint," there was no possibility for the most obtuse to mistake his meaning. He called kicking a footman downstairs a hint to the latter to leave his service.
Be you a Remainer or a Leaver, you would have to be particularly obtuse not to see that [Theresa] May's hard Tory Brexit will cost this country and its families more than it can conceivably afford.
gloss: Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted.
pos: adj
examples: The ſenſe of the inteſtines, if exquiſite, wants a more gentle remedie; and if dull, a ſtronger: Alſo the ſenſes of the inteſtines are perceived by the courſe of diet; for thoſe that feed upon muſtard, or the like biting and more ſharp meat, without trouble, are of a more obtuſe ſenſe; but thoſe of an exact ſenſe, which preſently perceive the mordacity; and thoſe that are of a mean ſenſe, want a mean doſe.
Another addition in Mr. [Joseph Emerson] Worcester's key to the same letter [e] is what he calls the short and obtuse sound, as in her, herd, fern, fervid. Some of these, also, for the sake of indicating the true sound, [John] Walker was obliged to spell with a different vowel. Thus her is directed to be pronounced hur, like u in tub.
gloss: Indirect or circuitous.
pos: adj
examples: […] The Conchologist's First Book intends to do something different by describing both the shell and the soft parts of each creature together. The claim seems awfully trivial, I admit, and [Edgar Allan] Poe does press his point only by the obtuse route of stressing an expansion of terminology, from the traditional "conchology" (literally the study of shells, as retained in the title) to "malacology" (or the study of the entire organism—for the animals within the hard shells consist almost entirely of soft parts,[…]).
Synonyms: obtuse-angled
blunt
dull
Antonyms: bright
intelligent
on the ball
quick off the mark
quick-witted
sharp
smart
clear
sharp
acute
acute
acute-angled
pointed
sharp
Derived words: nonobtuse
obtuse-angled triangle
obtuse-angular
obtuse horn shell
obtusely
obtuseness
obtusish
obtusity
subobtuse
unobtuse
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: тъп
roman: tǎp
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 鈍 /钝
roman: dùn
lang: Czech
word: tupý
lang: Esperanto
word: malakra
lang: Finnish
word: tylppä
lang: Finnish
word: tylsä
lang: Māori
word: hāpūpū
lang: Polish
word: rozwarty
lang: Portuguese
word: embotado
lang: Slovak
word: tupý
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: كور
roman: kör
lang: Armenian
word: բութ
roman: butʻ
lang: Dutch
word: bot
lang: Esperanto
word: stumpa
lang: Finnish
word: tylppä
lang: German
word: stumpf
lang: Greek
word: αμβλύς
roman: amvlýs
lang: Macedonian
word: тап
roman: tap
lang: Portuguese
word: obtuso
lang: Russian
word: тупо́й
roman: tupój
lang: Russian
word: притуплённый
roman: pritupljónnyj
lang: Spanish
word: obtuso
lang: Spanish
word: romo
lang: Swedish
word: trubbig
lang: Swedish
word: slö