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Given to action; constantly engaged in action; energetic; diligent; busy; -- opposed to dull, sluggish, indolent, or inert; as, an active man of business; active mind; active zeal.

perceiving or using minute distinctions; penetrating; clever; shrewd; -- opposed to Ant: dull or Ant: stupid; as, an acute observer; acute remarks, or reasoning.

A foolish or dull-witted fellow. [Colloq.]

Dull-witted; stupid. "The addle-brained Oberstein." Motley. Dull and addle-pated. Dryden.

The faculty by which ideas are conceived; understanding; as, a man of dull apprehension.

king with the nonmetals. It is of a steel-gray color and brilliant luster, though usually dull from tarnish. It is very brittle, and sublimes at 356º Fahrenheit. It is sometimes found native, but usually combined with silver, cobalt, nickel, iron, antimony, or sulphur. Orpiment and realgar are two of its sulphur compou…

A dull, heavy, stupid fellow; a dolt. Shak. Asses' Bridge. Etym: [L. pons asinorum.] The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." [Sportive] "A schoolboy, stammering out his Asses' Bridge." F. Harrison. -- To make an ass of one's self, t…

with augmented force the idea or the properties of the term from which it is derived; as, dullard, one very dull. Opposed to diminutive. Gibbs.

Not well advanced in learning; not quick of apprehension; dull; inapt; as, a backward child. "The backward learner." South.

Mentally dull; stupid. Shak. Barren flower, a flower which has only stamens without a pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils. -- Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions. -- Barren Ground bear (Zoöl.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed…

Stupid; dull. Shak.

Dull; stupid. Shak.

To make sottish; to make dull or stupid; to stupefy; to infatuate. Fools besotted with their crimes. Hudibras.

Hydrous carbonate of bismuth, an earthy mineral of a dull white or yellowish color. [Written also bismuthite.]

Stupid; dull.

Like a block; deficient in understanding; stupid; dull. "Blockish Ajax." Shak. -- Block"ish*ly, adv. -- Block"ish*ness, n.

Having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; dull; not sharp. The murderous knife was dull and blunt. Shak.

Dull; stupid. Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanor! Shak.

Want of edge or point; dullness; obtuseness; want of sharpness. The multitude of elements and bluntness of angles. Holland.

Of or pertaining to Boeotia; hence, stupid; dull; obtuse. -- n.