dulness

Perhaps one ought not to use the word dulness, because it may be misunderstood.

From a College Window Arthur Christopher Benson 1893

You are sometimes wearisome and wearied; you call your dulness melancholy.

The Lily of the Valley Honor�� de Balzac 1824

Now I know that the idea of dulness or discomfort at Christmas is a very improper one, particularly in a story.

In the Yule-Log Glow, Book II Christmas Tales from 'Round the World 1902

Now I know that the idea of dulness or discomfort at Christmas is a very improper one, particularly in a story.

Melchior's Dream and Other Tales Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing 1863

The most fatal form of vulgarity is described as dulness of heart and dulness of bodily sense, general stupidity being its material manifestation.

Art in England Notes and Studies Dutton Cook 1856

I suppose that many who now connect the very word history with the idea of dulness, would have been fond and diligent students of history if it had had fair access to their minds.

Friends in Council — First Series Arthur Helps 1844

The fine tact of these consummate men of the world derives a humoristic enjoyment in eccentricity of character, which never shows itself in any outward sign beyond the heightened pleasure they feel in what other folks might call dulness or mere oddity. '

Lord Kilgobbin Charles James Lever 1839

Rousseau imagined that the childhood of some men is accompanied by this seeming and deceitful dulness, which is the sign of a profound genius; and Roger Ascham has placed among "the best natures for learning, the sad-natured and hard-witted child;" that is, the thoughtful, or the melancholic, and the slow.

Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions Isaac Disraeli 1807

His book is lively without being flippant, and full of information without that dulness which is apt to be the evil demon of statistics.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 Various

There was medicine here for every kind of dulness -- not the gross cure which earthly wine effects, but so nicely proportioned to each specific need that one could regulate one's debauch to a hairbreadth, rising through all the gamut of satisfaction, from the staid contentment coming of that flask there to the wild extravagances of the furthermost vase.

Gulliver of Mars 1905