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Dull

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dull¹

  • /dʌl/ US, UK
  • /dʊl/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌl

Where it comes from

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).

adjective duller · dullest · dul · dulle

  1. Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp. All these knives are dull.
  2. Boring; not exciting or interesting. He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.
  3. Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness. Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.
  4. Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding. She is not bred so dull but she can learn.
  5. Sluggish, listless. This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
  6. Bored, depressed, down. I felt dull all day.
  7. Cloudy, overcast. It's a dull day.
  8. Insensible; unfeeling. Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.
  9. Heavy; lifeless; inert. the dull earth
  10. Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly. Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
  11. Not clear, muffled. (of a noise or sound)

verb dulls · dulling · dulled · dul · dulle

  1. transitive To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp. Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
  2. transitive To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy. He drinks to dull the pain.
  3. intransitive To lose a sharp edge; to become dull. A razor will dull with use.
  4. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Similar: dullen

dull²

  • /dʌl/ US
  • /dʌl/ Ireland
  • /dul/ Ireland

Where it comes from

Probably from Irish dul, dol (“loop, noose, snare”).

noun dulls

  1. Ireland, Southern US, archaic, obsolete A noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an animal, especially a fish. Play fair, boys. No dynamite nor "dulling." The deadly "dull," or wire noose, is a fatal weapon against a trout.

verb dulls · dulling · dulled

  1. Ireland, Southern US, archaic, obsolete To fish (or snare an animal, especially a fish) with such a noose. I hope that the barbarous practice called dulling has gone out of fashion.

Dull³

Where it comes from

* As a German surname, from dialectal tull (“stout, corpulent”) (see the adjective doll), or a variant of Thiel. See Duell.

* As a Scottish surname, it is a habitational name from Dull in Perthshire (see Etymology 2).

* As an English surname, variant of Dill, Doel.

proper noun Dulls

  1. A surname. of Scottish and German origin.

Dull⁴

Where it comes from

Possibly from Pictish [Term?], cognate with Proto-Brythonic *dol (“meadow”).

proper noun

  1. A village in Perth and Kinross council area, Scotland.

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