Adjective

(er)

Having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; not sharp.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

The murderous knife was dull and blunt .

*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)

, title= The Three Corpse Trick, section=chapter 5 , passage=The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.}}

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

, chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}

Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

His wits are not so blunt .

Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.

the blunt admission that he had never liked my company

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

a plain, blunt man

Hard to impress or penetrate.

* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.

Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Perceptible by the senses.

* Arbuthnot

Air is sensible to the touch by its motion.

* 1778 , William Lewis, The New Dispensatory (page 91)

The sensible qualities of argentina promise no great virtue of this kind; for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughishness, from whence it may be presumed to be entitled to a place only among the milder corroborants.

* 1902 , William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience , Folio Society 2008, page 45:

It has been vouchsafed, for example, to very few Christian believers to have had a sensible vision of their Saviour.

Easily perceived; appreciable.

* Sir W. Temple

The disgrace was more sensible than the pain.

* Adam Smith

The discovery of the mines of America does not seem to have had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England.

(archaic) Able to feel or perceive.

* Shakespeare

Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.

(archaic) Liable to external impression; easily affected; sensitive.

a sensible thermometer

* Shakespeare

with affection wondrous sensible

Of or pertaining to the senses; sensory.

(archaic) Cognizant; having the perception of something; aware of something.

* John Locke

He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

* Addison

They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse.

Acting with or showing good sense; able to make good judgements based on reason.

* 2005 , .

They ask questions of someone who thinks he's got something sensible to say on some matter when actually he hasn't.

Characterized more by usefulness or practicality than by fashionableness, especially of clothing.

* 1999 , Neil Gaiman, Stardust (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8,

They would walk, on fair evenings, around the village, and discuss the theory of crop rotation, and the weather, and other such sensible matters.