Duledge noun (Mil.) One of the dowels joining the ends of the fellies which form the circle of the wheel of a gun carriage. Wilhelm.

Dulia noun [ Late Latin , from Greek ... servitude, from ... slave.] (R. C. Ch.) An inferior kind of veneration or worship, given to the angels and saints as the servants of God.

Dull adjective [ Compar. Duller ; superl. Dullest .] [ Anglo-Saxon dol foolish; akin to gedwelan to err, Dutch dol mad, dwalen to wander, err, German toll mad, Goth. dwals foolish, stupid, confer Greek ... turbid, troubled, Sanskrit dhvr to cause to fall. Confer Dolt , Dwale , Dwell , Fraud .]
1. Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish. " Dull at classical learning." Thackeray.

She is not bred so dull but she can learn.

Shak.

2. Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.

This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.

Matt. xiii. 15.

O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.

Spenser.

3. Insensible; unfeeling.

Think me not
So dull a devil to forget the loss
Of such a matchless wife.

Beau. & Fl.

4. Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt. "Thy scythe is dull ." Herbert.

5. Not bright or clear to the eye; wanting in liveliness of color or luster; not vivid; obscure; dim; as, a dull fire or lamp; a dull red or yellow; a dull mirror.

6. Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert. "The dull earth." Shak.

As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.

Longfellow.

7. Furnishing little delight, spirit, or variety; uninteresting; tedious; cheerless; gloomy; melancholy; depressing; as, a dull story or sermon; a dull occupation or period; hence, cloudy; overcast; as, a dull day.

Along life's dullest , dreariest walk.

Keble.

Syn. -- Lifeless; inanimate; dead; stupid; doltish; heavy; sluggish; sleepy; drowsy; gross; cheerless; tedious; irksome; dismal; dreary; clouded; tarnished; obtuse. See Lifeless .

Dull transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Duller ; present participle & verbal noun Dulling .]
1. To deprive of sharpness of edge or point. "This . . . dulled their swords." Bacon.

Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

Shak.

2. To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.

Those [ drugs] she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense a while.

Shak.

Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.

Trench.

3. To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. " Dulls the mirror." Bacon.

4. To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.

Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through continuance.

Hooker.

Dull intransitive verb To become dull or stupid. Rom. of R.

Dull-brained adjective Stupid; doltish. Shak.

Dull-browed adjective Having a gloomy look.

Dull-eyed adjective Having eyes wanting brightness, liveliness, or vivacity. Shak.

Dull-sighted adjective Having poor eyesight.

Dull-witted adjective Stupid.

Dullard noun [ Dull + - ard .] A stupid person; a dunce. Shak. -- adjective Stupid. Bp. Hall.

Duller noun One who, or that which, dulls.

Dullhead noun A blockhead; a dolt. Ascham.

Dullish adjective Somewhat dull; uninteresting; tiresome. "A series of dullish verses." Prof. Wilson.

Dullness noun The state of being dull; slowness; stupidity; heaviness; drowsiness; bluntness; obtuseness; dimness; want of luster; want of vividness, or of brightness. [ Written also dulness .]

And gentle dullness ever loves a joke.

Pope.

Dullsome adjective Dull. [ R.] Gataker.

Dully adverb In a dull manner; stupidly; slowly; sluggishly; without life or spirit.

Supinely calm and dully innocent.

G. Lyttelton.

Dulocracy noun See Doulocracy .

Dulse (dŭls) noun [ Confer Gael. duileasg ; duille leaf + uisge water. Confer Whisky .] (Botany) A seaweed of a reddish brown color, which is sometimes eaten, as in Scotland. The true dulse is Sarcophyllis edulis ; the common is Rhodymenia . [ Written also dillisk. ]

The crimson leaf of the dulse is seen
To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter.

Percival.

Dulwilly noun [ Prob. imitative.] (Zoology) The ring plover. [ Prov. Eng.]

Duly adverb In a due, fit, or becoming manner; as it (anything) ought to be; properly; regularly.

Dumal adjective [ Latin dumus bramble.] Pertaining to, or set with, briers or bushes; brambly. [ R.]

Dumb adjective [ Anglo-Saxon dumb ; akin to Dutch dom stupid, dumb, Swedish dumb , Goth. dumbs ; confer Greek ... blind. See Deaf , and confer Dummy .]
1. Destitute of the power of speech; unable; to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes.

To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures.

Hooker.

2. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show.

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.

Shak.

To pierce into the dumb past.

J. C. Shairp.

3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [ R.]

Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color.

De Foe.

Deaf and dumb . See Deaf-mute . -- Dumb ague , or Dumb chill , a form of intermittent fever which has no well-defined "chill." [ U.S.] -- Dumb animal , any animal except man; - - usually restricted to a domestic quadruped; -- so called in contradistinction to man, who is a "speaking animal." -- Dumb cake , a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's eve, with certain mystic ceremonies, to discover their future husbands. Halliwell. -- Dumb cane (Botany) , a west Indian plant of the Arum family ( Dieffenbachia seguina ), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech. - - Dumb crambo . See under crambo . -- Dumb show . (a) Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown in pantomime. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise." Shak. (b) Signs and gestures without words; as, to tell a story in dumb show . -- To strike dumb , to confound; to astonish; to render silent by astonishment; or, it may be, to deprive of the power of speech.

Syn. -- Silent; speechless; noiseless. See Mute .

Dumb transitive verb To put to silence. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Dumb-bell noun A weight, consisting of two spheres or spheroids, connected by a short bar for a handle; used (often in pairs) for gymnastic exercise.

Dumb-waiter noun A framework on which dishes, food, etc., are passed from one room or story of a house to another; a lift for dishes, etc.; also, a piece of furniture with movable or revolving shelves.

Dumbledor noun [ The first part is probably of imitative origin. See Dor a beetle.] (Zoology) A bumblebee; also, a cockchafer. [ Prov. Eng.]

Dumbly adverb In silence; mutely.

Dumbness noun The quality or state of being dumb; muteness; silence; inability to speak.

Dumdum bullet (Mil.) A kind of manstopping bullet; -- so named from Dumdum , in India, where bullets are manufactured for the Indian army.

Dumetose adjective [ From Latin dumetum a thicket.] (Botany) Dumose.

Dumfound transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Dumfounded ; present participle & verbal noun Dumfounding .] To strike dumb; to confuse with astonishment. [ Written also dumbfound .] Spectator.

Dumfounder transitive verb To dumfound; to confound. [ Written also dumbfounder .]

Dummador noun A dumbledor.

Dummerer noun One who feigns dumbness. [ Obsolete] Burton.

Dummy adjective [ See Dumb .]
1. Silent; mute; noiseless; as a dummy engine.

2. Fictitious or sham; feigned; as, a dummy watch.

Dummy car . See under Car .

Dummy noun ; plural Dummies
1. One who is dumb. H. Smith.

2. A sham package in a shop, or one which does not contain what its exterior indicates.

3. An imitation or copy of something, to be used as a substitute; a model; a lay figure; as, a figure on which clothing is exhibited in shop windows; a blank paper copy used to show the size of the future book, etc.

4. (Drama) One who plays a merely nominal part in any action; a sham character.

5. A thick-witted person; a dolt. [ Colloq.]

6. (Railroad) A locomotive with condensing engines, and, hence, without the noise of escaping steam; also, a dummy car.

7. (Card Playing) The fourth or exposed hand when three persons play at a four-handed game of cards.

8. A floating barge connected with a pier. Knight.

To play dummy , to play the exposed or dummy hand in cards. The partner of the dummy plays it.

Dumose, Dumous adjective [ Latin dumosus , from dumus a thornbush, a bramble.]
1. Abounding with bushes and briers.

2. (Botany) Having a compact, bushy form.

Dump noun [ See Dumpling .] A thick, ill-shapen piece; a clumsy leaden counter used by boys in playing chuck farthing. [ Eng.] Smart.

Dump noun [ Confer dial. Swedish dumpin melancholy, Danish dump dull, low, Dutch dompig damp, German dumpf damp, dull, gloomy, and English damp , or rather perhaps dump , transitive verb Confer Damp , or Dump , transitive verb ]
1. A dull, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; low spirits; despondency; ill humor; -- now used only in the plural.

March slowly on in solemn dump .

Hudibras.

Doleful dumps the mind oppress.

Shak.

I was musing in the midst of my dumps .

Bunyan.

» The ludicrous associations now attached to this word did not originally belong to it. "Holland's translation of Livy represents the Romans as being `in the dumps' after the battle of Cannæ." Trench.

2. Absence of mind; revery. Locke.

3. A melancholy strain or tune in music; any tune. [ Obsolete] "Tune a deploring dump ." "Play me some merry dump ." Shak.

4. An old kind of dance. [ Obsolete] Nares.

Dump transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Dumped ; present participle & verbal noun Dumping .] [ Middle English dumpen to throw down, fall down, confer Icelandic dumpa to thump, Dan. dumpe to fall suddenly, rush, dial. Swedish dimpa to fall down plump. Confer Dump sadness.]
1. To knock heavily; to stump. [ Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

2. To put or throw down with more or less of violence; hence, to unload from a cart by tilting it; as, to dump sand, coal, etc. [ U.S.] Bartlett.

Dumping car or cart , a railway car, or a cart, the body of which can be tilted to empty the contents; -- called also dump car , or dump cart .

Dump noun
1. A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.

2. A ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.

3. That which is dumped.

4. (Mining) A pile of ore or rock.

Dumpage noun
1. The act of dumping loads from carts, especially loads of refuse matter; also, a heap of dumped matter.

2. A fee paid for the privilege of dumping loads.

Dumpiness noun The state of being dumpy.

Dumpish adjective Dull; stupid; sad; moping; melancholy. " A . . . dumpish and sour life." Lord Herbert.

-- Dump"ish*ly , adverb -- Dump"ish*ness , noun

Dumple transitive verb [ See Dumpling .] To make dumpy; to fold, or bend, as one part over another. [ R.]

He was a little man, dumpled up together.

Sir W. Scott.

Dumpling noun [ Dimin. of dump an illshapen piece; confer D. dompelen to plunge, dip, duck, Scot. to dump in to plunge into, and English dump , transitive verb ] A roundish mass of dough boiled in soup, or as a sort of pudding; often, a cover of paste inclosing an apple or other fruit, and boiled or baked; as, an apple dumpling .

Dumpy adjective [ Compar. Dumpier ; superl. Dumpiest .] [
1. From Dump a short ill-shapen piece. 2. From Dump sadness.]
1. Short and thick; of low stature and disproportionately stout.

2. Sullen or discontented. [ Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Dumpy level (Surv.) A level having a short telescope (hence its name) rigidly fixed to a table capable only of rotatory movement in a horizontal plane. The telescope is usually an inverting one. It is sometimes called the Troughton level , from the name of the inventor, and a variety improved by one Gavatt is known as the Gavatt level .