Blank vs. Dull

(archaic) White or pale; without colour.

Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in

Example: ‘blank paper’; ‘a blank check’; ‘a blank ballot’;

(sports) Scoreless; without any goals or points.

(figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.

Example: ‘a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness’;

Absolute; downright; sheer.

Example: ‘There was a look of blank terror on his face.’;

Without expression.

Example: ‘Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.’;

Utterly confounded or discomfited.

Empty; void; without result; fruitless.

Example: ‘a blank day’;

Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

Example: ‘The shock left his memory blank.’;

(military) Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.

Example: ‘The recruits were issued with blank rounds for a training exercise.’;

A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers; also a silver coin of Henry V current in the parts of France then held by the English, worth about 8 pence .

(obsolete) A nonplus 16th century.

The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim .

A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated since the 16th century.

An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .

A space to be filled in on a form or template.

Example: ‘Write your answers in the blanks.’;

Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form will be settled in Committee .

(now chiefly U.S.) A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled up at the pleasure of the person to whom it is given (e.g. a blank charter, ballot, form, contract, etc.), or as the event may determine; a blank form .

An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all .

An unprinted leaf of a book 20th century.

(literature) Blank verse .

A piece of metal (such as a coin, screw, nuts), cut and shaped to the required size of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping .

Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required since the 19th century.

(electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus 20th century.

(figurative) A vacant space, place, or period; a void since the 17th century.

The 1 / 230400 of a grain 17th century.

An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory since the 18th century.

A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word since the 18th century

The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.

(dominoes) A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.

Example: ‘the double blank’; ‘the six blank’;

Short for blank-cartridge; a cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile since the 19th century.

An ineffective effort which achieves nothing since the 20th century.

(chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.

(slang) Infertile semen.

(transitive) To make void; to erase.

Example: ‘I blanked out my previous entry.’;

To ignore (a person) deliberately.

Example: ‘She blanked me for no reason.’;

(transitive) To prevent from scoring, for example in a sporting event.

Example: ‘The team was blanked.’; ‘England blanks Wales to advance to the final.’;

(intransitive) To become blank.

(intransitive) To be temporarily unable to remember.

Example: ‘I'm blanking on her name right now.’;

Of a white or pale color; without color.

Example: ‘To the blank moonHer office they prescribed.’;

Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in with some special writing; - said of checks, official documents, etc.; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.

Utterly confounded or discomfited.

Example: ‘Adam . . . astonied stood, and blank.’;

Empty; void; without result; fruitless; as, a blank space; a blank day.

Lacking characteristics which give variety; as, a blank desert; a blank wall; destitute of interests, affections, hopes, etc.; as, to live a blank existence; destitute of sensations; as, blank unconsciousness.

Lacking animation and intelligence, or their associated characteristics, as expression of face, look, etc.; expressionless; vacant.

Example: ‘The blank . . . glance of a half returned consciousness.’;

Absolute; downright; unmixed; as, blank terror.

Any void space; a void space on paper, or in any written instrument; an interval void of consciousness, action, result, etc; a void.

Example: ‘I can not write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.’; ‘From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.’; ‘I was ill. I can't tell how long - it was a blank.’;

A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.

Example: ‘In Fortune's lottery liesA heap of blanks, like this, for one small prize.’;

A paper unwritten; a paper without marks or characters a blank ballot; - especially, a paper on which are to be inserted designated items of information, for which spaces are left vacant; a bland form.

Example: ‘The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.’;

A paper containing the substance of a legal instrument, as a deed, release, writ, or execution, with spaces left to be filled with names, date, descriptions, etc.

The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.

Example: ‘Let me still remainThe true blank of thine eye.’;

Aim; shot; range.

Example: ‘I have stood . . . within the blank of his displeasureFor my free speech.’;

A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.

A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.

A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the "double blank"; the "six blank."

To make void; to annul.

To blanch; to make blank; to damp the spirits of; to dispirit or confuse.

Example: ‘Each opposite that blanks the face of joy.’;

a blank character used to separate successive words in writing or printing;

Example: ‘he said the space is the most important character in the alphabet’;

a substitute for a taboo word;

Example: ‘I hit the blank blank car’;

a blank gap or missing part

a piece of material ready to be made into something

a cartridge containing an explosive charge but no bullet

keep the opposing (baseball) team from winning

of a surface; not written or printed on;

Example: ‘blank pages’; ‘fill in the blank spaces’; ‘a clean page’; ‘wide white margins’;

void of expression;

Example: ‘a blank stare’;

not charged with a bullet;

Example: ‘a blank cartridge’;

Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp.

Example: ‘All these knives are dull.’;

Boring; not exciting or interesting.

Example: ‘He sat through the dull lecture and barely stayed awake.’; ‘When does having a dull personality ever get you a girlfriend? Even if you get one, how does being dull help you keep a relationship for over a year?’;

Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness.

Example: ‘Choose a dull finish to hide fingerprints.’; ‘a dull fire or lamp;’; ‘a dull red or yellow;’; ‘a dull mirror’;

Not bright or intelligent; stupid; slow of understanding.

Sluggish, listless.

Cloudy, overcast.

Example: ‘It's a dull day.’;

Insensible; unfeeling.

Heavy; lifeless; inert.

(of pain etc) Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly.

Example: ‘Pressing on the bruise produces a dull pain.’;

Not clear, muffled.

(transitive) To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp.

Example: ‘Years of misuse have dulled the tools.’;

(transitive) To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy.

Example: ‘He drinks to dull the pain.’;

(intransitive) To lose a sharp edge; to become dull.

Example: ‘A razor will dull with use.’;

To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish.

Example: ‘She is not bred so dull but she can learn.’;

Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.

Example: ‘This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.’; ‘O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue.’;

Insensible; unfeeling.

Example: ‘Think me notSo dull a devil to forget the lossOf such a matchless wife.’;

Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt.

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.

Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert.

Example: ‘As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of study a dull brain.’;

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.

Example: ‘Along life's dullest, dreariest walk.’;

To deprive of sharpness of edge or point.

Example: ‘Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.’;

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

Example: ‘Those [drugs] she hasWill stupefy and dull the sense a while.’; ‘Use and custom have so dulled our eyes.’;

To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.

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

Example: ‘Attention of mind . . . wasted or dulled through continuance.’;

To become dull or stupid.

make dull in appearance;

Example: ‘Age had dulled the surface’;

become dull or lusterless in appearance; lose shine or brightness;

Example: ‘the varnished table top dulled with time’;

deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping

make numb or insensitive;

Example: ‘The shock numbed her senses’;

make dull or blunt;

Example: ‘Too much cutting dulls the knife's edge’;

become less interesting or attractive

make less lively or vigorous;

Example: ‘Middle age dulled her appetite for travel’;

lacking in liveliness or animation;

Example: ‘he was so dull at parties’; ‘a dull political campaign’; ‘a large dull impassive man’; ‘dull days with nothing to do’; ‘how dull and dreary the world is’; ‘fell back into one of her dull moods’;

emitting or reflecting very little light;

Example: ‘a dull glow’; ‘dull silver badly in need of a polish’; ‘a dull sky’;

being or made softer or less loud or clear;

Example: ‘the dull boom of distant breaking waves’; ‘muffled drums’; ‘the muffled noises of the street’; ‘muted trumpets’;

so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness;

Example: ‘a boring evening with uninteresting people’; ‘the deadening effect of some routine tasks’; ‘a dull play’; ‘his competent but dull performance’; ‘a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention’; ‘what an irksome task the writing of long letters is’; ‘tedious days on the train’; ‘the tiresome chirping of a cricket’; ‘other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome’;

(of color) very low in saturation; highly diluted;

Example: ‘dull greens and blues’;

not keenly felt;

Example: ‘a dull throbbing’; ‘dull pain’;

slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity;

Example: ‘so dense he never understands anything I say to him’; ‘never met anyone quite so dim’; ‘although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick’; ‘dumb officials make some really dumb decisions’; ‘he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse’; ‘worked with the slow students’;

(of business) not active or brisk;

Example: ‘business is dull (or slow)’; ‘a sluggish market’;

not having a sharp edge or point;

Example: ‘the knife was too dull to be of any use’;

blunted in responsiveness or sensibility;

Example: ‘a dull gaze’; ‘so exhausted she was dull to what went on about her’;

not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft;

Example: ‘the dull thud’; ‘thudding bullets’;

darkened with overcast;

Example: ‘a dark day’; ‘a dull sky’; ‘a gray rainy afternoon’; ‘gray clouds’; ‘the sky was leaden and thick’;