dull
Example Sentences
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Coach Sean McVay’s strategy of arriving the day before the game backfired and resulted in a dull performance by a team that features some of the biggest stars in the NFL.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Britain's The Guardian newspaper said the movie "entertains us with creepy campfire tales" but the Hollywood Reporter called it a "dull existential drama" while The Wrap website described it as a "frustrating slog".
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
Zietz tells me he’d rather endure criticism than be dull, but the calculus is different for other leaders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The sepia footage and slow shutter speeds of the cameras that captured his magic during his playing days simply cannot dull his brilliance.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
The bus settled to the bottom with a dull thump.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
Users of the drugs have reported duller senses of taste, less pleasure from eating and related side effects around flavor—phenomena characterized by some as “Ozempic tongue.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
That show is growing duller, and more lethargic and repetitive, by the day, like watching reruns of a canceled sitcom.
From Salon ● Feb. 13, 2026
There is apparently no way to make these things run any faster, but Glaser, who returned often to the stage, at least gave one the impression, between the duller stretches, that it was clipping along.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2025
Further north and west however, it was duller, cooler and wetter.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2024
His skin is obsidian dark; his clothes duller, more ash.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Ms. Coppola poses the dullest questions and gets very little in response.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026
“When you are a scientist, and you are trying to prove or disprove a notion, you work at the bench doing the dullest, most routine things over and over and over again,” Baltimore once explained.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2025
In parts of south-west England it was the dullest April since 1981.
From BBC ● May 1, 2024
Pandemic-era remote learning is well over, but for middle and high school students, school can still seem like an endless Zoom in the dullest sense of the word.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
“It’ll also be unprecedented in the history of dull things. It’ll be the dullest thing ever written!”
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Vulgar language can be effective in a sharp response, but it dulls with overuse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
But the passage of time naturally dulls the horror for people farther away.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2026
In theory, each ingredient plays a role: one dries secretions, another loosens phlegm, a third dulls the cough reflex.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
The jargon used in scientific reports and global climate conferences also creates a sense of detachment that dulls the living things it refers to.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2025
Celia squints through the light, which dulls her eyesight and blurs the palms on the shore.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
The prevalence of oil dulled any urgency to diversify the economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
The law’s shield is shattered, and its sword is dulled.
From Slate ● May 1, 2026
The bigger question now may be less about appearance and more about whether age and inactivity have dulled those attributes.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
She was heavy, pale; her eyes dulled and vacant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2026
The vibrations from the road dulled their voices.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
He says this wetter weather has been having "a dulling effect" on the Giant's outline, leaving it greener and less distinct between maintenance work.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
Paradoxically, it is the unwavering commitment to a narrow range of recognizable figures, dulling in its totality, that turned his signature style into a full-blown brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
The higher costs have prompted chocolate makers to raise their prices, dulling consumers' appetite for the sweets.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
More than a century later, fine particles of pollution still clung to its feathers, dulling what once was a scarlet red breast to a mottled gray.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2025
Slavery was a long slow process of dulling.
From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler
Vocabulary lists containing dull
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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The ACT Reading Test: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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