Dull Definition

dŭl

dulled, dullest, dulling, dulls, duller

adjective

dullest, duller

Arousing little interest; lacking liveliness; boring.

A dull movie.

American Heritage

Physically slow; slow-moving; sluggish.

Webster's New World

Lacking spirit, zest, etc.; not lively; listless, insipid, etc.

Webster's New World

Mentally slow; stupid.

Webster's New World

Not pointed or sharp; blunt; not keen.

A dull blade.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

verb

dulled, dulling, dulls

To make or become dull.

American Heritage

To make or become dull.

Webster's New World

To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

Years of misuse have dulled the tools.

Wiktionary

To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Other Word Forms of Dull

Base Form:

dull

Comparative:

Superlative:

dullest

From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, 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”).

From Wiktionary
Middle English dul Old English dol

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition