dull

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Boring; not interesting or exciting.

   The meeting was so dull that I nearly fell asleep.

2. 2
   adj

   Not sharp; having a blunt edge or point.

   The knife was too dull to cut the bread.

3. 3
   adj

   Not bright or shiny; giving off little light.

   The room had a dull grey glow on the rainy morning.

4. 4
   adj

   Not sharp or strong, said of a feeling or pain.

   She felt a dull ache in her lower back.

5. 5
   verb

   To make a feeling or quality less strong.

   Years of routine had dulled his appetite for travel.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Dull is an Old English word whose original meaning was “stupid.”

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”), Germa…

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