Dull

How to spell dull

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dull

What does dull mean?

1. adjectiveLacking brightness, sharpness, interest, or excitement.
2. verbTo make or become less sharp, intense, or lively.

Dull in a sentence

• adjective

  The meeting was so dull that several people checked their phones.

• verb

  A strong painkiller can dull the ache for a few hours.

• adjective

  A dull grey sky hung over the city all afternoon.

• verb

  Years of routine work began to dull her enthusiasm.

Where does dull come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Dull traces back to the Old English word dol, which meant 'foolish' or 'stupid' rather than 'boring'. That word grew from a Germanic root shared with the Old High German tol and the modern German toll, as well as the Dutch dol, all clustering around ideas of being dazed, mad, or mentally blunt. Over the medieval period the sense widened from a slow or stupid mind to anything that lacked sharpness or brightness, so a blunt knife, a cloudy sky, and a tedious lecture could all be called dull. By the time the spelling settled in Middle English as 'dull', it carried the whole modern range of meanings: blunt, slow-witted, gloomy, and uninteresting. The German cousin toll has drifted in the opposite direction and now means 'great' or 'fantastic', a neat reminder that words from the same root can travel very different roads.

How the word is built

• dull (single Germanic root meaning foolish or blunt; no prefix or suffix)