Definition of Dullness

1. Noun. The quality of being slow to understand.

Exact synonyms: Obtuseness
Generic synonyms: Stupidity
Specialized synonyms: Oscitance, Oscitancy
Derivative terms: Dull, Obtuse, Obtuse

2. Noun. The quality of lacking interestingness. "The stories were of a dullness to bring a buffalo to its knees"

3. Noun. A lack of visual brightness. "The brightness of the orange sky was reflected in the dullness of the orange sea"
Generic synonyms: Visual Property
Specialized synonyms: Dimness, Subduedness, Flatness, Lusterlessness, Lustrelessness, Mat, Matt, Matte
Antonyms: Brightness
Derivative terms: Dull, Dull, Dull

4. Noun. Lack of sensibility. "Without him the dullness of her life crept into her work no matter how she tried to compartmentalize it."
Generic synonyms: Callosity, Callousness, Hardness, Insensibility, Unfeelingness
Derivative terms: Dull, Dull

5. Noun. Without sharpness or clearness of edge or point. "The dullness of the pencil made his writing illegible"
Exact synonyms: Bluntness
Specialized synonyms: Obtuseness
Generic synonyms: Configuration, Conformation, Contour, Form, Shape
Derivative terms: Blunt, Blunt, Dull
Antonyms: Sharpness, Sharpness

Definition of Dullness

1. n. The state of being dull; slowness; stupidity; heaviness; drowsiness; bluntness; obtuseness; dimness; want of luster; want of vividness, or of brightness.

Definition of Dullness

1. Noun. The quality of being slow to understand things. ¹

2. Noun. The quality of being uninteresting. ¹

3. Noun. The lack of visual brilliance. ¹

4. Noun. (context: of an edge) bluntness. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Dullness

1. the state of being dull [n -ES]

Medical Definition of Dullness

1. Dulness The character of the sound obtained by percussing over a solid part incapable of resonating; usually applied to an area containing less air than those which can resonate. (05 Mar 2000)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Dullness

dull as dishwater
dull as ditchwater
dullard
dullardry
dullards
dulled
duller
dullest
dullhead
dullheads
dullier
dulliest
dulling
dullish
dullishly
dullness (current term)
dullnesses
dulls
dullsome
dullsville
dullsvilles
dullwitted
dullwittedness
dully
dulness
dulnesses
dulocracies
dulocracy
duloses
dulosis

Literary usage of Dullness

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Individual Delinquent: A Text-book of Diagnosis and Prognosis for All by William Healy (1915)
"There can be no more doubt about the 'possibility of mental dullness arising ... Even the mental dullness which supervenes during an attack of jaundice is ..."

2. The Journal of Experimental Medicine by Rockefeller University, Rockefeller Institute, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1907)
"Experiment V. Absolute Relative Absolute Relative dullness. ... In four experiments the maximum of dullness occurred after two days, and in two experiments ..."

3. Physical diagnosis by Wallace Dickinson Rose (1917)
"dullness has been reached and marked, continuing with superficial percussion, until the upper limit of the area of absolute cardiac dullness is attained, ..."

4. Monographic Medicine by Albion Walter Hewlett, Henry Leopold Elsner (1916)
"The Area of Absolute (or Superficial) Cardiac dullness At the level of the ... In many textbooks the right margin of the superficial cardiac dullness is ..."

5. A Tabular handbook of auscultation and percussion by Herbert Codman Clapp (1887)
"In some persons then is in health a Mght degree of dullness at the summit of the chest on the ... In many of them dullness is more common than flatness. ..."

6. Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of Women by Harry Sturgeon Crossen (1910)
"153 Area of dullness in Abdomen.. ISO Indicating area of dullness from distended bladder 154 181 Indicating area of dullness from enlarged uterus 154 182 ..."

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