Skip to the word

Added 1 October 2026

dull

/dʌl/ adjective

In Latin: hebes, retūsus Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dull at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
All these knives are dull.
Boring; not exciting or interesting.
He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.
Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.

verb

To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
He drinks to dull the pain.
To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
A razor will dull with use.

noun

A noose of string, metal wire, or hair used to snare an animal, especially a fish.

verb

To fish (or snare an animal, especially a fish) with such a noose.

Origin

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”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word