Dull a. [Compar. Duller superl. Dullest.]
 1. Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. “Dull at classical learning.”
    She is not bred so dull but she can learn.   --Shak.
 2. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.
    This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.   --Matt. xiii. 15.
    O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.   --Spenser.
 3. Insensible; unfeeling.
 Think me not
 So dull a devil to forget the loss
 Of such a matchless wife.   -- Beau. & Fl.
 4. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt. “Thy scythe is dull.”
 5. 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.
 6. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert. “The dull earth.”
    As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.   -- Longfellow.
 7. 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.
    Along life's dullest, dreariest walk.   -- Keble.
 Syn: -- Lifeless; inanimate; dead; stupid; doltish; heavy; sluggish; sleepy; drowsy; gross; cheerless; tedious; irksome; dismal; dreary; clouded; tarnished; obtuse. See Lifeless.


 Dull, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Duller p. pr. & vb. n. Dulling.]
 1. To deprive of sharpness of edge or point. “This . . . dulled their swords.”
    Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.   --Shak.
 2. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.
 Those [drugs] she has
 Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.   --Shak.
    Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.   --Trench.
 3. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. “Dulls the mirror.”
 4. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.
    Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through continuance.   --Hooker.


 Dull·er n. One who, or that which, dulls.

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