different between mollify vs dull

English

Alternative forms

• mollifie

Etymology

From Middle English mollifien, from Late Latin mollific?, from Latin mollis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?l?fa?/

Verb

mollify (third-person singular simple present mollifies, present participle mollifying, simple past and past participle mollified)

1. To ease a burden, particularly worry; make less painful; to comfort.
   • 1893, Henry George, The Condition of Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII, p. 104:

     All that charity can do where injustice exists is here and there to somewhat mollify the effects of injustice.

   • 1997, A Government Reinvented: A Study of Alberta's Deficit Elimination Program, p. 408:

     The draft Charter School Handbook issued in November 1994 sought to mollify concerns over teacher quality, if not ATA membership, by requiring teacher certification.

2. To appease (anger), pacify, gain the good will of.
   • 1867, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, chapter 2:

     Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a church-warden, it by no means mollified the beadle.

   • 1916, L. Frank Baum, Rinkitink in Oz, chapter 5:

     The angry goat was quite mollified by the respectful tone in which he was addressed.

   • 2016 January 31, "Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?," Vanity Fair (retrieved 21 January 2016):

     But these answers did not mollify Grassley. Specifically, he objected to Abedin’s becoming an S.G.E., because he believed she provided no irreplaceable expertise and therefore her designation as one had violated Congress’s intent when it created the program, in 1962.

3. To soften; to make tender
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:

     "Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollifie what is hard, then it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Aire."

   • 1724, William Burkitt, Expository Notes, with Practical Observations on the New Testament, p. 102:

     By thy kindness thou wilt melt and mollify his spirit towards thee, as hardest metals are melted by coals of fire …

Synonyms

• (to ease a burden): assuage, calm, comfort, mitigate, soothe
• (to appease): appease, conciliate, pacify, placate, propitiate, satisfy
• (to soften): soften, soften up, tenderize, temper, anneal, deharden, distemper
• See also Thesaurus:calm

Related terms

• emollient
• mollification

Translations

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