dull

«dull» in Mova's school dictionary: boring, not interesting or exciting — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (dull, duller, dullest); verb (dull, dulls, dulled, dulling)

meaning for a pupil

1) Dull means boring, not interesting or exciting. tree →

2) Dull means not bright or shiny, like a grey sky or faded colours. tree →

3) A dull blade or pencil is not sharp. tree →

4) A dull sound or pain is not sharp or clear but soft and heavy. tree →

5) To dull something is to make it less strong or less bright. tree →

sense in the lessons

In writing lessons, children replace dull words with interesting ones. In weather, a dull day is cloudy and grey. In science, metals are shiny but some materials are dull. In health, a dull ache is a steady pain. Phrases: «a dull day», «never a dull moment», «a dull ache», «dull the pain».

examples

• The film was so dull that I fell asleep. tree →
• It was a dull, grey morning. tree →
• This knife is dull; it won't cut the bread. tree →
• I heard a dull thud from upstairs. tree →
• He had a dull pain in his tooth. tree →
• Polish the dull spoons until they shine. tree →
• With my little brother around, there's never a dull moment. tree →
• The medicine dulled the pain. tree →
• Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. tree →

note

Comparatives: duller, dullest. Opposites: «interesting», «exciting» (boring sense); «bright», «shiny» (look); «sharp» (blade). Safety oddity: a dull knife can be more dangerous because you push harder. In science, «dull» is a property of materials, opposite of «shiny». Not a number word.

In the corpora

• The Mole asks «But isn't it a bit dull at times?
• Slowly the fits come less often — but Toad grows dull, droopy and sad.
• Toad feels «a dull pain in the lower part of his spine» — that is how fear feels to him.
• Grandma's best silver spoons come out of the drawer dull and almost black, even though nobody has used them.
• Silver darkens, copper goes dull brown and then green, and bronze statues in the park grow green streaks.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «dull» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.