Dun Meaning

/dʌn/
C2

Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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nounA brownish grey colour.

adjOf a brownish grey colour.

The horse was a beautiful shade of greyish dun.
They will dun us for payment until we settle the debt.
The horse had a beautiful dun coat and black mane.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The creditor will ____ the debtor until the full amount is paid.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The horse was a beautiful shade of greyish ____.

From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”). Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (compare Old Irish donn and Scottish Gaelic donn (“brown”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (compare Old Saxon dosan (“chestnut brown”)). More at dusk.

"Come, thick Night, And pall thee in the dunneſt ſmoake of Hell, That my keene Knife ſee not the Wound it makes, Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke, To cry, hold, hold." — c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 134, column 2, lines 48–49:
"My Miſtres eyes are nothing like the Sunne, Currall is farre more red, then her lips red, If ſnow be white, why then her breſts are dun: If hairs be wiers, black wiers grow on her head: [...]" — 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"Red o'er the forest glows the setting sun, / The line of yellow light dies fast away / That crown'd the eastern copse, and chill and dun / Falls on the moor the brief November day." — 1827, [John Keble], “Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 85:
"Where is the nobility in these streets paved with greasy carbon and dun ash?" — 2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Terminal One (Legendary):
""The truth is, Mr. Curl, I cannot write when I am plagued about trifles; and a tiresome dun this morning put to flight every idea that I had in the world." "Mr. Maynard," said the bookseller, in a solemn tone, "it is very wrong to run in debt."" — 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 162–163:

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CEFR Practice Quiz
The creditor will ____ the debtor until the full amount is paid.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The horse was a beautiful shade of greyish ____.

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