Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dull; flat; noting a defect of spirit or animation, and also of courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; lethargic; pithless; vapid; wanting force; frivolous.
  • Dull; hollow: as, a dowf sound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Dull; flat; denoting a defect of spirit, animation, or courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; listless; lethargic; pithless; vapid; lacking force; frivolous.
  • adjective of a sound Dull; hollow.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Icelandic daufur ("deaf, dull"), from Old Norse daufr ("deaf"), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰūbʰ-, *dʰūp- (“to smoke”). Cognate with Old English dēaf ("deaf"). Compare dove ("to slumber"). More at deaf.

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  • Century Dictionary: "Dull; flat; noting a defect of spirit or animation, and also of courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; lethargic; pithless; vapid; wanting force; frivolous."

    December 22, 2010