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What is the difference between bright and dull?

bright | dull |

Dull is a antonym of bright.



As adjectives the difference between bright and dull

is that bright is visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, clear, radiant; not dark while dull is lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

As a noun bright

is an artist's brush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.

As a proper noun Bright

is {{surname|lang=en}.

As a verb dull is

to render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

bright

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, clear, radiant; not dark.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • *Sir (Francis Drake) (c.1540-1596)
  • *:The earth was dark, but the heavens were bright .
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:The public places were as bright as at noonday.
  • *(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (1807-1882)
  • *:The sun was bright o'erhead.
  • Having a clear, quick intellect; intelligent.
  • :
  • * Episode 16
  • *:—Ah, God, Corley replied, sure I couldn't teach in a school, man. I was never one of your bright ones, he added with a half laugh.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • Vivid, colourful, brilliant.
  • :
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:Here the bright crocus and blue violet grew.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • Happy, in (soplink).
  • :
  • *1937 , , (The Hobbit) , Ch.11:
  • *:Their spirits had risen a little at the discovery of the path, but now they sank into their boots; and yet they would not give it up and go away. The hobbit was no longer much brighter than the dwarves. He would do nothing but sit with his back to the rock-face and stare.
  • Sparkling with wit; lively; vivacious; cheerful.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Be bright and jovial among your guests.
  • Illustrious; glorious.
  • *(Charles Cotton) (1630-1687)
  • *:the brightest annals of a female reign
  • Clear; transparent.
  • *(James Thomson) (1700-1748)
  • *:From the brightest wines / He'd turn abhorrent.
  • (lb) Manifest to the mind, as light is to the eyes; clear; evident; plain.
  • *(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
  • *:with brighter evidence, and with surer success

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * * brighten * bright-eyed * bright-eyed and bushy-tailed * brightness * bright side * bright young thing * brightwork * eyebright

    See also

    * (Brights movement)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An artist's brush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.
  • (obsolete) splendour; brightness
  • * Milton
    • Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear.
  • (neologism) A person with a naturalistic worldview with no supernatural or mystical elements.
  • * {{quote-news, date = 2003-06-20
    • , title = The future looks bright , first = Richard , last = Dawkins , authorlink = Richard Dawkins , newspaper = (The Guardian) , issn = 0261-3077 , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/jun/21/society.richarddawkins , passage = Brights' constitute 60% of American scientists, and a stunning 93% of those scientists good enough to be elected to the elite National Academy of Sciences (equivalent to Fellows of the Royal Society) are ' brights . }}
  • * {{quote-book, date = 2006-02-02
    • , title = Breaking the Spell: Religion As a Natural Phenomenon , first = Daniel C. , last = Dennett , authorlink = Daniel C. Dennett , location = New York , publisher = Viking , isbn = 9780670034727 , ol = 3421576M , page = 27 , pageurl = http://books.google.com/books?id=yWtwDDqR61QC&pg=PA27&dq=brights , passage = Many of us brights' have devoted considerable time and energy at some point in our lives to looking at the arguments for and against the existence of God, and many ' brights continue to pursue these issues, hacking away vigorously at the arguments of believers as if they were trying to refute a rival scientific theory. }}
  • * {{quote-book, date = 2008-03-17
    • , title = The Delusion of Disbelief: Why the New Atheism Is a Threat to Your Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness , first = David , last = Aikman , location = Carol Stream , publisher = Tyndale House Publishers , isbn = 9781414317083 , ol = 24967138M , page = 28 , pageurl = http://books.google.com/books?id=zn6XkS-4BJcC&pg=PA28&dq=brights , passage = Dawkins has received appreciative letters from people who were formerly what he derisively calls "faith-heads" who have abandoned their delusions and come over to the side of the brights , the pleasant green pastures where clear-eyed, brave, bold, and supremely brainy atheists graze contentedly. }}
  • *

    • Antonyms

    * (non-supernaturalist) (neologism) super, supernaturalist

    Hyponyms

    * (non-supernaturalist) atheist

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words

    dull

    English

    Alternative forms

    * dul, dulle

    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.

    Synonyms

    * See also * See also * (not shiny) lackluster, matte

    Antonyms

    * bright * intelligent * sharp

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
    • Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • This dulled their swords.
  • To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
    • He drinks to dull the pain.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Those [drugs] she has / Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.
  • * Trench
    • Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.
  • To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
    • A razor will dull with use.
  • To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • dulls the mirror

    External links

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