Search the Dictionary

Having a thick skin; hence, not sensitive; dull; obtuse. Holland.

Having a thick skull; hence, dull; heavy; stupid; slow to learn.

A coarse, gross person; a person void of sensibility or sinsitiveness; a dullard.

A dullard, or dull person; a blockhead; a numskull. Entick.

Deficient in reasoning power; stupid; dull. Thoughtless as monarch oaks that shade the plain. Dryden. -- Thought"less*ly, adv. -- Thought"less*ness, n.

A dull sound without resonance, like that produced by striking with, or striking against, some comparatively soft substance; also, the stroke or blow producing such sound; as, the thrud of a cannon ball striking the earth. At every new thud of the blast, a sob arose. Jeffrey. At intervals there came some tremendous thu…

To strike or beat with something thick or heavy, or so as to cause a dull sound. These bastard Bretons; whom our hathers Have in their own land beaten, bobbed, and thumped. Shak.

ertaining to a torpedo; resembling a torpedo; exerting a benumbing influence; stupefying; dull; torpid. Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner. De Quincey.

Dull; stupid; sluggish; inactive. Sir M. Hale.

Dullness; sluggishness; inactivity; as, a torpor of the mental faculties.

Resembling a tub; specifically sounding dull and without resonance, like a tub; wanting elasticity or freedom of sound; as, a tubby violin.

ortune. -- To turn the edge or point of, to bend over the edge or point of so as to make dull; to blunt. -- To turn the head or brain of, to make giddy, wild, insane, or the like; to infatuate; to overthrow the reason or judgment of; as, a little success turned his head. -- To turn the scale or balance, to change th…

An African wading bird (Scopus umbretta) allied to the storks and herons. It is dull dusky brown, and has a large occipital crest. Called also umbrette, umbre, and umber bird. Burnt umber (Paint.), a pigment made by burning raw umber, which is changed by this process from an olive brown to a bright reddish brown. -- C…

Inapt; slow; dull. Bacon.

Having lost its life and spirit; dead; spiritless; insipid; flat; dull; unanimated; as, vapid beer; a vapid speech; a vapid state of the blood. A cheap, bloodless reformation, a guiltless liberty, appear flat and vapid to their taste. Burke. -- Vap"id*ly, adv. -- Vap"id*ness, n.

e unstriped muscles of the arterial system with motor nerves, situated in a part of the medulla oblongata; a center of reflex action by the working of which afferent impulses are changed into efferent, -- vasomotor impulses leading either to dilation or constriction of the blood vessels.

at.) See Larynx, and the Note under Voice, n., 1. -- Vocal fremitus Etym: [L. fremitus a dull roaring or murmuring] (Med.), the perceptible vibration of the chest wall, produced by the transmission of the sonorous vibrations during the act of using the voice. -- Vocal music, music made by the voice, in distinction fr…

Hence, to move with difficulty or labor; to proceed as, to wade through a dull book. And wades through fumes, and gropes his way. Dryden. The king's admirable conduct has waded through all these difficulties. Davenant.

icated and mixed with saliva, become whitened and tenacious. Its natural color is pale or dull yellow.

crested insessorial bird (Sphenostoma cristatum) having a wedge-shaped bill. Its color is dull brown, like the earth of the plains where it lives.