Dictionary: DULL'ING – DUN

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DULL'ING, ppr.

Making dull.

DULL'NESS, n.

  1. Stupidity; slowness of comprehension; weakness of intellect; indocility; as, the dullness of a student. – South.
  2. Want of quick perception or eager desire.
  3. Heaviness; drowsiness; inclination to sleep.
  4. Heaviness; disinclination to motion.
  5. Sluggishness; slowness.
  6. Dimness; want of clearness or luster.
  7. Bluntness; want of edge.
  8. Want of brightness or vividness; as, dullness of color.

DULL'-SIGHT-ED, a.

Having imperfect sight; purblind.

DULL'-WIT-TED, a.

Having a dull intellect; heavy.

DUL'LY, adv.

Stupidly; slowly; sluggishly; without life or spirit.

DU-LOC'RA-CY, n. [Gr. δουλος and κρατεω.]

Predominance of slaves.

DU'LY, adv. [from due.]

  1. Properly; fitly; in a suitable or becoming manner; as, let the subject be duly considered.
  2. Regularly; at the proper time; as, a man duly attended church with his family.

DUMB, a. [dum; Sax. dumb; Goth. dumbs, dumba; G. dumm; D. dom; Sw. dumm, or dumbe; Dan. dum; Heb. Ch. דום, to be silent; Ar. دَامَ dauma, to continue or be permanent, to appease, to quiet. Class Dm, No. 3. In this word, b improperly added.]

  1. Mute; silent; not speaking. I was dumb with silence; I held my peace. – Ps. xxxix.
  2. Destitute of the power of speech; unable to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes. The asylum, at Hartford, in Connecticut, was the first institution in America for teaching the deaf and dumb to read and write.
  3. Mute; not using or accompanied with speech; as, a dumb show; dumb signs. To strike dumb, is to confound; to astonish; to render silent by astonishment; or it may be, to deprive of the power of speech.

DUMB, v.t.

To silence. – Shak.

DUMB'-BELLS, n.

Weights swung in the hands for exercise.

DUMB'LY, adv. [dum'ly.]

Mutely; silently; without words or speech.

DUMB'NESS, n. [dum'ness.]

  1. Muteness; silence or holding the peace; omission of speech. This is voluntary dumbness.
  2. Incapacity to speak; inability to articulate sounds. This is involuntary dumbness.

DUM'FOUND, v.t.

To strike dumb; to confuse. [A low word.] – Spectator.

DUM'MER-ER, n.

One who feigns dumbness. [Not in use.]

DU'MOUS, a. [L. dumosus, from dumus, a bush.]

Abounding with bushes and briers.

DUMP, n. [from the root of dumb; D. dom; G. dumm.]

  1. A dull gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; sorrow; heaviness of heart. In doleful dumps. – Gay.
  2. Absence of mind; revery. – Locke.
  3. A melancholy tune or air. – Shak. [This is not an elegant word, and in America, I believe, is always used in the plural; as, the woman is in the dumps.]

DUMP, v.t.

To throw or drop, as a load from a cart. – New York. Dutch.

DUMP'ISH, a.

Dull; stupid; sad; melancholy; depressed in spirits; as, he lives a dumpish life.

DUMP'ISH-LY, adv.

In a moping manner.

DUMP'ISH-NESS, n.

A state of being dull, heavy and moping.

DUMP'LING, n. [from dump.]

A kind of pudding or mass of paste in cookery; usually, a cover of paste inclosing an apple and boiled, called apple-dumpling.

DUMPS, n. [plur.]

Melancholy; gloom.

DUMP'Y, a.

Short and thick.

DUN, a. [Sax. dunn; W. dwn; Ir. donn; qu. tan, tawny. See Class Dn No. 3, 24, 28, 35.]

  1. Of a dark color; of a color partaking of a brown and black; of a dull brown color; swarthy.
  2. Dark; gloomy. In the dun air sublime. – Milton.

DUN, n.

  1. An importunate creditor who urges for payment. – Philips. Arbuthnot.
  2. An urgent request or demand of payment in writing; as, he sent his debtor a dun.
  3. An eminence or mound. [See Down and Town.]