Definition of Humdrum

1. Noun. The quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety. "He hated the sameness of the food the college served"

Exact synonyms: Monotony, Sameness
Generic synonyms: Unvariedness
Derivative terms: Same

2. Adjective. Not challenging; dull and lacking excitement. "An unglamorous job greasing engines"
Exact synonyms: Commonplace, Prosaic, Unglamorous, Unglamourous
Similar to: Unexciting
Derivative terms: Prosaicness, Prose

3. Adjective. Tediously repetitious or lacking in variety. "Nothing is so monotonous as the sea"
Exact synonyms: Monotonous
Similar to: Dull

Definition of Humdrum

1. a. Monotonous; dull; commonplace.

2. n. A dull fellow; a bore.

Definition of Humdrum

1. Adjective. Lacking variety or excitement; dull; boring. ¹

2. Noun. The quality of lacking variety or excitement; dullness. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Humdrum

1. a dull, boring person [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Humdrum

humbucking pickup
humbug
humbuged
humbugged
humbugger
humbuggeries
humbuggers
humbuggery
humbugging
humbuging
humbugs
humbuzz
humbuzzes
humdinger
humdingers
humdrum (current term)
humdrumness
humdrums
humect
humectant
humectants
humectate
humectated
humectates
humectating
humectation
humectations
humected
humecting
humective

Literary usage of Humdrum

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

1. Handbook of Practice for Teachers: Practical Directions for Management and by Charles Alexander McMurry (1914)
"Formal Routine and humdrum humdrum is denned in the dictionary as dull, commonplace, tedious, etc. There are many school exercises which seem to possess a ..."

2. Evils of the Cities: A Series of Practical and Popular Discourses Delivered by Thomas De Witt Talmage, Richard S. Rhodes (1903)
"What many of us most need is to have the humdrum driven out of our life and the ... The American and English and Scottish church will die of humdrum unless ..."

3. Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later: Both by the Original Discoverer of the by Samuel Butler (1920)
"humdrum AND DR. DOWNIE PROPOSE A COMPROMISE, WHICH, AFTER AN AMENDMENT BY GEORGE, IS CARRIED NKU CON. THEY returned in about ten minutes, ..."

4. The Age and Its Architects: Ten Chapters on the English People, in Reference by Edwin Paxton Hood (1852)
"humdrum was a place of importance in history; frequently it figures in the page of English story. In the archives of its old castles are many stories of ..."

5. Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse by Alfred Kreymborg (1920)
"... humdrum If I had a million lives to live and a million deaths to die in a million humdrum worlds, I'd like to change my name and have a new house number ..."

6. On the Study of Celtic Literature by Matthew Arnold (1867)
"and Virgil, but do not read and comment on Chaucer and Shakspeare), and it struck me how the fatal humdrum and want of style of the Germans had marred their ..."

7. Danish Folk Tales: From the Danish of Svend Grundtvig, E. T. Kristensen by Evald Tang Kristensen, Leopold Budde, Sven Grundtvig, Ingvor Andreas Nicolaj Bondesen (1899)
"... HANS humdrum ;NCE there were a man and his wife who owned a very small farm ; they had three sons. The oldest was called Peter, the second Paul, ..."

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