Simple vs Dull - What's the difference?
simple | dull |
Uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added.
*
*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”
*2001 , Sydney I. Landau, Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography , Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0-521-78512-X), page 167,
*:There is no simple way to define precisely a complex arrangement of parts, however homely the object may appear to be.
Without ornamentation; plain.
Free from duplicity; guileless, innocent, straightforward.
* (ca.1576-1634)
*:Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them.
*(Lord Byron) (1788-1824)
*:Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue?
*(Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1803-1882)
*:To be simple is to be great.
Undistinguished in social condition; of no special rank.
Trivial; insignificant.
*1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:
*:‘That was a symple cause,’ seyde Sir Trystram, ‘for to sle a good knyght for seyynge well by his maystir.’
Feeble-minded; foolish.
Structurally uncomplicated.
#(lb) Consisting of one single substance; uncompounded.
#(lb) Of a group: having no normal subgroup.
#(lb) Not compound, but possibly lobed.
#(lb) Consisting of a single individual or zooid; not compound.
#:
#(lb) Homogenous.
(lb) Mere; not other than; being only.
*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*:A medicinewhose simple touch / Is powerful to araise King Pepin.
(medicine) A preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.
*, II.37:
*:I know there are some simples , which in operation are moistening and some drying.
*Sir W. Temple
*:What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies.
(obsolete) A term for a physician, derived from the medicinal term above.
(logic) A simple or atomic proposition.
(obsolete) Something not mixed or compounded.
*Shakespeare
*:compounded of many simples
(weaving) A drawloom.
(weaving) Part of the apparatus for raising the heddles of a drawloom.
(Roman Catholic) A feast which is not a double or a semidouble.
(transitive, intransitive, archaic) To gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs.
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 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= 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.
To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.
* Francis Bacon
To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.
* Shakespeare
* Trench
To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.
To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
* Francis Bacon
As adjectives the difference between simple and dull
is that simple is uncomplicated; taken by itself, with nothing added while dull is lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.As verbs the difference between simple and dull
is that simple is (transitive|intransitive|archaic) to gather simples, ie, medicinal herbs while dull is to render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.As a noun simple
is (medicine) a preparation made from one plant, as opposed to something made from more than one plant.simple
English
Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* (consisting of a single part or aspect) onefold * (having few parts or features) plain * See alsoAntonyms
* (having few parts or features) complex, compound, complicated * (uncomplicated) subtleDerived terms
* fee simple * future simple * oversimple * past simple * plain and simple * present simple * pure and simple * simple beam * simple connectivity * simple contract * simple dislocation * simple equation * simple extension * simple eye * simple fraction * simple fracture * simple fruit * simple function * simple future * simple group * simple harmonic motion * simple-hearted * simple interest * simple leaf * simple linear regression * simple machine * simple mastectomy * simple microscope * simple-minded * simple past * simple pendulum * simple pistil * simple pole * simple present * simple protein * simple regression * simple sentence * Simple Simon * simple sugar * simple syrup * simple time * simple trust * simplehead * simpleness * simpless * simplex * simply * single * simplicity * simpletonNoun
(en noun)Verb
(simpl)Derived terms
* simpler * simplist * simplifyStatistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----dull
English
Alternative forms
* dul, dulleAdjective
(er)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?’}}
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.}}
- Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.
Synonyms
* See also * See also * (not shiny) lackluster, matteAntonyms
* bright * intelligent * sharpVerb
(en verb)- Years of misuse have dulled the tools.
- This dulled their swords.
- He drinks to dull the pain.
- Those [drugs] she has / Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.
- Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.
- A razor will dull with use.
- dulls the mirror