dull
1. make dull in appearance (Freq. 1)
- Age had dulled the surface
• Hypernyms:
change, alter, modify
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Something ----s something
2. become dull or lusterless in appearance;
lose shine or brightness (Freq. 1)
- the varnished table top dulled with time
• Hypernyms:
change
• Verb Frames:
- Something ----s
3. make numb or insensitive
- The shock numbed her senses
• Syn:
numb, benumb, blunt
• Hypernyms:
desensitize, desensitise
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Somebody ----s somebody
- Something ----s somebody
4. deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
• Syn:
muffle, mute, damp, dampen, tone down
• Derivationally related forms:
damper (for: damp), mute (for: mute), muffler (for: muffle)
• Hypernyms:
soften
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Something ----s something
5. make dull or blunt
- Too much cutting dulls the knife's edge
• Syn:
blunt
• Ant:
sharpen
• Hypernyms:
change, alter, modify
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Something ----s something
6. become less interesting or attractive
• Syn:
pall
• Derivationally related forms:
dullard
• Hypernyms:
change
• Verb Frames:
- Something ----s
7. make less lively or vigorous
- Middle age dulled her appetite for travel
• Hypernyms:
weaken
• Hyponyms:
cloud
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Something ----s something
1. lacking in liveliness or animation (Freq. 5)
- he was so dull at parties
- a dull political campaign
- a large dull impassive man
- dull days with nothing to do
- how dull and dreary the world is
- fell back into one of her dull moods
• Ant:
lively
• Similar to:
arid, desiccate, desiccated, bovine, drab,
dreary, heavy, leaden, humdrum, monotonous, lackluster,
lacklustre, lusterless, lustreless
• See Also:
colorless, colourless, spiritless, unanimated
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
• Attrubites:
dullness
2. emitting or reflecting very little light (Freq. 5)
- a dull glow
- dull silver badly in need of a polish
- a dull sky
• Ant:
bright
• Similar to:
flat, mat, matt, matte, matted,
lackluster, lacklustre, lusterless, lustreless, soft, subdued
• See Also:
unpolished
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
• Attrubites:
luminosity, brightness, brightness level, luminance, luminousness, light
3. being or made softer or less loud or clear (Freq. 2)
- the dull boom of distant breaking waves
- muffled drums
- the muffled noises of the street
- muted trumpets
• Syn:
muffled, muted, softened
• Similar to:
soft
4. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness (Freq. 2)
- a boring evening with uninteresting people
- the deadening effect of some routine tasks
- a dull play
- his competent but dull performance
- a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention
- "what an irksome task the writing of long letters is"- Edmund Burke
- tedious days on the train
- "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain
- other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome
• Syn:
boring, deadening, ho-hum, irksome, slow,
tedious, tiresome, wearisome
• Similar to:
uninteresting
• Derivationally related forms:
tiresomeness (for: tiresome), tedium (for: tedious), tediousness (for: tedious), dullness, boringness (for: boring)
5. (of color) very low in saturation;
highly diluted (Freq. 2)
- dull greens and blues
• Similar to:
unsaturated
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
6. not keenly felt (Freq. 1)
- a dull throbbing
- dull pain
• Ant:
sharp
• Similar to:
deadened
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
7. slow to learn or understand;
lacking intellectual acuity (Freq. 1)
- so dense he never understands anything I say to him
- never met anyone quite so dim
- "although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick"- Thackeray
- dumb officials make some really dumb decisions
- he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse
- worked with the slow students
• Syn:
dense, dim, dumb, obtuse, slow
• Similar to:
stupid
• Derivationally related forms:
slowness (for: slow), obtuseness (for: obtuse), dumbness (for: dumb), dullness, denseness (for: dense)
8. (of business) not active or brisk (Freq. 1)
- business is dull (or slow)
- a sluggish market
• Syn:
slow, sluggish
• Similar to:
inactive
• Derivationally related forms:
sluggishness (for: sluggish)
• Topics:
commercial enterprise, business enterprise, business
9. not having a sharp edge or point
- the knife was too dull to be of any use
• Ant:
sharp
• Similar to:
blunt, blunted, dulled, edgeless, unsharpened
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
10. blunted in responsiveness or sensibility
- a dull gaze
- "so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her"- Willa Cather
• Similar to:
insensitive
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
11. not clear and resonant;
sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft
- the dull thud
- thudding bullets
• Syn:
thudding
• Similar to:
unreverberant, nonresonant
12. darkened with overcast
- a dark day
- a dull sky
- the sky was leaden and thick
• Syn:
leaden
• Similar to:
cloudy
• Derivationally related forms:
dullness
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