different between dull vs void

English

Alternative forms

• dul, dulle (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English dull, dul (also dyll, dill, dwal), from Old English dol (“dull, foolish, erring, heretical; foolish, silly; presumptuous”), from Proto-Germanic *dulaz, a variant of *dwalaz (“stunned, mad, foolish, misled”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?wel-, *d?ewel- (“to dim, dull, cloud, make obscure, swirl, whirl”). Cognate with Scots dull, doll (“slow to understand or hear, deaf, dull”), North Frisian dol (“rash, unthinking, giddy, flippant”), Dutch dol (“crazy, mad, insane”), Low German dul, dol (“mad, silly, stupid, fatuous”), German toll (“crazy, mad, wild, fantastic”), Danish dval (“foolish, absurd”), Icelandic dulur (“secretive, silent”), West-Flemish dul (angry, furious).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?l/
  • (Canada) IPA^(key): /d?l/, /d?l/, /d??/
• (US)
• Rhymes: -?l

Adjective

dull (comparative duller, superlative dullest)

1. Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

2. Boring; not exciting or interesting.

3. Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

   a dull fire or lamp;? a dull red or yellow;? a dull mirror

   • A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

4. Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding.
5. Sluggish, listless.

   • This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene

     O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.
6. Cloudy, overcast.

7. Insensible; unfeeling.

   • Think me not / So dull a devil to forget the loss / Of such a matchless wife.

8. Heavy; lifeless; inert.
   • c. 1857', Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Table-Talk

     As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.

9. (of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.

   Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.

10. (of a noise or sound) Not clear, muffled.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:boring
• See also Thesaurus:stupid
• (not shiny): lackluster, matte

Antonyms

• bright
• intelligent
• sharp

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

dull (third-person singular simple present dulls, present participle dulling, simple past and past participle dulled)

1. (transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

   Years of misuse have dulled the tools.

   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     This […] dulled their swords.

2. (transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

   He drinks to dull the pain.

   • 1850, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord

     Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.

3. (intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

   A razor will dull with use.

4. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Synonyms

• dullen

Translations

References

• dull in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dull in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ULDL

Welsh

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dey?- (“to show, point out”).

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /d???/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /d??/

Noun

dull m (plural dulliau)

1. method

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “dull”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

References

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v??d/
• Rhymes: -??d
• Hyphenation: void

Etymology 1

From Middle English voide, voyde, from Old French vuit, voide, vuide (modern vide), in turn from a Vulgar Latin *vocitus, related to Latin vacuus (“empty”).

Adjective

void (not comparable)

1. Containing nothing; empty; not occupied or filled.

   • The earth was without form, and void.

   • c. 1619–22, Philip Massinger and John Fletcher, A Very Woman

     I'll chain him in my study, that, at void hours, / I may run over the story of his country.

2. Having no incumbent; unoccupied; said of offices etc.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms

     divers great offices that had been long void

3. Being without; destitute; devoid.

   • He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor.

4. Not producing any effect; ineffectual; vain.

   • [My word] shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please.

   • I will make void the counsel of Judah.

5. Of no legal force or effect, incapable of confirmation or ratification.

   null and void

6. Containing no immaterial quality; destitute of mind or soul.
7. (computing, programming, of a function or method) That does not return a value.

Translations

Noun

void (plural voids)

1. An empty space; a vacuum.

   Nobody has crossed the void since one man died trying three hundred years ago; it's high time we had another go.
2. (astronomy) An extended region of space containing no galaxies
3. (materials science) A collection of adjacent vacancies inside a crystal lattice.
4. (fluid mechanics) A pocket of vapour inside a fluid flow, created by cavitation.
5. (construction) An empty space between floors or walls, including false separations and planned gaps between a building and its facade.

Synonyms

• ((engineering) collection of vacancies): pore
• ((engineering) pocket of vapour in fluid): bubble

Hyponyms

• ((astronomy) An extended region of space containing no galaxies): Local Void

Translations

Verb

void (third-person singular simple present voids, present participle voiding, simple past and past participle voided)

1. (transitive) To make invalid or worthless.
   • after they had voided the obligation of the oath he had taken

2. (transitive, medicine) To empty.

3. To throw or send out; to evacuate; to emit; to discharge.

   • You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur

   • 1612, John Webster, The White Devil

     With shovel, like a fury, voided out / The earth and scattered bones.

   • a. 1692, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance

     a watchful application of mind in voiding prejudices

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To withdraw, depart.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To remove the contents of; to make or leave vacant or empty; to quit; to leave.
   • If they will fight with us, bid them come down, / Or void the field.

Synonyms

• (make invalid or worthless): annul, cancel
• ((medicine) to empty): evacuate

Translations

Etymology 2

Alteration of voidee.

Noun

void (plural voids)

1. (now rare, historical) A voidee. [from 15th c.]
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 68:

     Late on the final evening, as the customary ‘void’ – spiced wine and sweetmeats – was served, more elaborate disguisings in the great hall culminated in the release of a flock of white doves.

Anagrams

• Ovid, divo

Middle French

Alternative forms

• voit

Verb

void

1. third-person singular indicative present of veoir