dull

CEFRB1

/dʌl/

adjective · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Not interesting, exciting, bright, or sharp.

  2. 02

    verb

    To make something less bright, sharp, or intense.

Examples

  • Geometry, about which I know nothing, seems like a very dull subject.

  • Life in a small town could be deadly dull.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /dul/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Boring; not exciting or interesting.

  2. Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

  3. Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

More examples

In context

  • Perfection is a trifle dull.

  • Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.

  • He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The old knife was too blank to cut through the ripe tomato.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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 (“secretiv...