Adjective

(en-adj)

(label) Unable to bear children; sterile.

I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren ?

Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.

* (1800–1859)

barren mountain tracts

* '>citation

Bleak.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2

, passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.}}

Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.

* (1796-1859)

brilliant but barren reveries

* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)

Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC

, title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.}}

Mentally dull; stupid.

* (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet), III.ii. ca. 1602

Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

Adjective

(er)

Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

:

Boring; not exciting or interesting.

:

:

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

:

:a dull''' fire or lamp;  a '''dull''' red or yellow;  mirror

*(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)

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

*

*: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. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.

Not bright or intelligent; stupid; slow of understanding.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:She is not bred so dull but she can learn.

*(William Makepeace Thackeray) (1811-1863)

*:dull at classical learning

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=15 citation , passage=She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’ ¶ ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}

Sluggish, listless.

*(Bible), (w) xiii. 15

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

*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

*:O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.

*, chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.}}

Cloudy, overcast.

:

Insensible; unfeeling.

*(Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)

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

Heavy; lifeless; inert.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:the dull earth

*(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)

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

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

Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.