different between drear vs dull
drear
English
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /d???/
Etymology 1
Shortening of dreary.
Adjective
drear (comparative drearer, superlative drearest)
- (poetic) Dreary.
- 1794, William Blake, Earth's Answer, lines 1-2
- Earth raised up her head
From the darkness dread and drear,
- Earth raised up her head
- 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night
- I spoke, perplexed by something in the signs
Of desolation I had seen and heard
In this drear pilgrimage to ruined shrines:
- I spoke, perplexed by something in the signs
- 1922, A. E. Housman, Last Poems, XXVIII, lines 1-2
- Now dreary dawns the eastern light,
And fall of eve is drear, [...]
- Now dreary dawns the eastern light,
- 1794, William Blake, Earth's Answer, lines 1-2
Etymology 2
Back-formation from dreary.
Noun
drear (plural drears)
- (obsolete) Gloom; sadness.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.2:
- She thankt him deare / Both for that newes he did to her impart, / And for the courteous care which he did beare / Both to her love and to her selfe in that sad dreare.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.2:
Anagrams
- Rader, arder, arred, darer, rared, rear'd, reard
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dull
English
Alternative forms
- dul, dulle (all obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, a variant of *dwalaz (“stunned, mad, foolish, misled”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?wel-, *d?ewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”). Cognate with Scots dull, doll (“slow to understand or hear, deaf, dull”), North Frisian dol (“rash, unthinking, giddy, flippant”), Dutch dol (“crazy, mad, insane”), Low German dul, dol (“mad, silly, stupid, fatuous”), German toll (“crazy, mad, wild, fantastic”), Danish dval (“foolish, absurd”), Icelandic dulur (“secretive, silent”), West-Flemish dul (angry, furious).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /d?l/
- (Canada) IPA(key): /d?l/, /d?l/, /d??/
- (US)
- Rhymes: -?l
Adjective
dull (comparative duller, superlative dullest)
- Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.
- Boring; not exciting or interesting.
- Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.
- a dull fire or lamp;? a dull red or yellow;? a dull mirror
- A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
- Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
- Sluggish, listless.
- This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene
- O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.
- Cloudy, overcast.
- Insensible; unfeeling.
- Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.
- Heavy; lifeless; inert.
- c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk
- As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.
- c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk
- (of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.
- Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
- (of a noise or sound) Not clear, muffled.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:boring
- See also Thesaurus:stupid
- (not shiny): lackluster, matte
Antonyms
- bright
- intelligent
- sharp
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
dull (third-person singular simple present dulls, present participle dulling, simple past and past participle dulled)
- (transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
- Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
- 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain
- This […] dulled their swords.
- (transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
- He drinks to dull the pain.
- 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord
- Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.
- (intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
- A razor will dull with use.
- To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
Synonyms
- dullen
Translations
References
- dull in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- dull in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- ULDL
Welsh
Etymology
Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dey?- (“to show, point out”).
Pronunciation
- (North Wales) IPA(key): /d???/
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /d??/
Noun
dull m (plural dulliau)
- method
Mutation
Further reading
- R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “dull”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
References
dull From the web:
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