dull

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   (of business) not active or brisk

   business is dull (or slow)

2. 2
   adj

   emitting or reflecting very little light

   a dull glow

3. 3
   adj

   not having a sharp edge or point

   the knife was too dull to be of any use

4. 4
   adj

   not keenly felt

   a dull throbbing

5. 5
   adj

   lacking in liveliness or animation

   They were so dull at parties.

6. 6
   adj

   being or made softer or less loud or clear

   the dull boom of distant breaking waves

7. 7
   adj

   blunted in responsiveness or sensibility

   a dull gaze

8. 8
   verb

   make less lively or vigorous

   Middle age dulled my appetite for travel.

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”), Germa…