duller

Pluraldullers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative form of dull.

   The afternoon meeting felt duller than the morning session.

   Winter skies here are far duller than the bright ones back home.

   Note

   The comparative carries every meaning of dull with it, so the context decides which scale is being climbed. A duller blade cuts less easily, a duller finish shines less, a duller lecture bores more, and a duller pupil understands more slowly. It normally takes than. The two-word form more dull remains available when rhythm or emphasis calls for it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that dulls something, making it less sharp, bright, or lively.

   The finishing agent serves as a duller, removing the gloss from the metal trim.

   Craftsmen relied on natural dullers to soften the harsh sheen of polished wood.

   Note

   An agent noun built from the verb dull plus -er, naming whatever does the dulling. It is a separate word from the comparative adjective, which attaches the same ending to the adjective instead, so one spelling hides two formations. Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster (c. 1608–1610) warns that fresh pork, conger and clarified whey are "dullers of the vital spirits". There the plural and the of-phrase mark it unmistakably as the noun.

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