dull
dull is a 4-letter English word with 31 senses as transitive verb, intransitive verb, verb, and adjective in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. Face value is 5 in Scrabble and 8 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.
Definitions
- superlative. Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish.
- superlative. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.
- superlative. Insensible; unfeeling.
- superlative. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt.
- superlative. Not bright or clear to the eye; wanting in liveliness of color or luster; not vivid; obscure; dim; as, a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror.
- superlative. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert.
- superlative. Furnishing little delight, spirit, or variety; uninteresting; tedious; cheerless; gloomy; melancholy; depressing; as, a dull story or sermon; a dull occupation or period; hence, cloudy; overcast; as, a dull day.
- transitive verb. To deprive of sharpness of edge or point.
- transitive verb. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.
- transitive verb. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
- transitive verb. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.
- intransitive verb. To become dull or stupid.
- verb. make less lively or vigorous
"Middle age dulled her appetite for travel"
- verb. become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness
"the varnished table top dulled with time"
- verb. become less interesting or attractive
- verb. make dull in appearance
"Age had dulled the surface"
- verb. make dull or blunt
"Too much cutting dulls the knife's edge"
- verb. make numb or insensitive
"The shock numbed her senses"
- verb. deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping
- adjective. (of business) not active or brisk
"business is dull (or slow)"
"a sluggish market"
- adjective. emitting or reflecting very little light
"a dull glow"
"dull silver badly in need of a polish"
- adjective. (of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted
"dull greens and blues"
- adjective. slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity- Thackeray
"so dense he never understands anything I say to him"
"never met anyone quite so dim"
- adjective. darkened with overcast
"a dark day"
"a dull sky"
- adjective. not having a sharp edge or point
"the knife was too dull to be of any use"
- adjective. not keenly felt
"a dull throbbing"
"dull pain"
- adjective. lacking in liveliness or animation
"he was so dull at parties"
"a dull political campaign"
- adjective. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness- Edmund Burke- Mark Twain
"a boring evening with uninteresting people"
"the deadening effect of some routine tasks"
- adjective. being or made softer or less loud or clear
"the dull boom of distant breaking waves"
"muffled drums"
- adjective. not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft
"the dull thud"
"thudding bullets"
- adjective. blunted in responsiveness or sensibility- Willa Cather
"a dull gaze"
"so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her"
Synonyms
pall, blunt, benumb, numb, damp, dampen, muffle, mute, slow, sluggish, dense, dim, dumb, obtuse, leaden, boring, deadening, irksome, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, muffled, muted, softened
Anagrams
Other playable words that use exactly the letters in dull:
Common word forms
dulls, dulled, duller, dulles, dullest, dulling, dullity, dullness
Words from these letters
If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for DULL lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.