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Sore vs Dull - What's the difference?

sore | dull |

As a noun sore

is .

As an adjective dull is

lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

As a verb dull is

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

sore

English

(wikipedia sore)

Adjective

(er)
  • Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.
  • Her feet were sore from walking so far.
  • Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.
  • * Tillotson
  • Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.
  • Dire; distressing.
  • The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood.
  • (informal) Feeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.
  • Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers.
  • (obsolete) Criminal; wrong; evil.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * sight for sore eyes * sorely * soreness * sore point

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (lb) Very, excessively, extremely (of something bad).
  • :
  • *
  • *:Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
  • Sorely.
  • *1919 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Jungle Tales of Tarzan
  • *:[… they] were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all, and at best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the second day, they still had not overhauled the fugitive.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin.
  • They put ointment and a bandage on the sore .
  • Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • I see plainly where his sore lies.
  • A group of ducks on land. (See also: sord).
  • A young hawk or falcon in its first year.
  • A young buck in its fourth year.
  • Verb

  • mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait in the animal.
  • Derived terms

    * soring

    See also

    * blister * lesion * ulcer

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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