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Dull vs Cull - What's the difference?

dull | cull |

As verbs the difference between dull and cull

is that dull is to render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp while cull is to pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).

As an adjective dull

is lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

As a noun cull is

a selection or cull can be (slang|dialectal) a fool, gullible person; a dupe.

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

    * *

    cull

    English

    (Culling)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).
  • * 1984', cover star: JOE DALLESANDRO '''culled from Andy Warhol's FLESH — anonymous; ''sleeve notes from ' eponymous album
  • To gather, collect.
  • * Tennyson
    • whitest honey in fairy gardens culled
  • * 1977 , , Penguin Classics, p. 202:
    • Chaucer's prose Tale of Melibee is a dialectal homily of moral debate, exhibiting a learned store of ethical precept culled from many ancient authorities.
  • To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.
  • (nonstandard, euphemistic) To kill (animals etc).
  • To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A selection.
  • An organised killing of selected animals.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-21
    • , author=Isobel Montgomery , title=A year that showed the best and worst of Britain , volume=188, issue=2, page=31 , date=2012-12-18 , magazine= citation , passage=It seemed that the sun shone and all was right in our Blakean islands until the government began to set in motion its promised cull of badgers in an effort to control bovine TB. Salvation for brock came in the form of an online petition started by Queen guitarist Brian May, the rising costs of the programme and the weather.}}
  • A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.

    • Etymology 2

    Perhaps an abbreviation of (cully).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang, dialectal) A fool, gullible person; a dupe.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 307:
    • Follow but my counsel, and I will show you a way to empty the pocket of a queer cull without any danger of the nubbing cheat.
    Synonyms
    * See also ----