blunt
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See also: Blunt
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).
Adjective[edit]
blunt (comparative blunter, superlative bluntest)
- Having a thick edge or point; not sharp.
- c. 1593, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iv]:
- The murderous knife was dull and blunt.
- 1944, Miles Burton, The Three Corpse Trick, chapter 5:
- The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess[1]:
- The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].
- Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene v]:
- His wits are not so blunt.
- Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.
- the blunt admission that he had never liked my company
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
- a plain, blunt man
- Hard to impress or penetrate.
- December 30, 1736, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
- I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.}}
- December 30, 1736, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift
- Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.
Synonyms[edit]
- (having a thick edge or point): dull, pointless, coarse
- (dull in understanding): stupid, obtuse
- (abrupt in address): curt, short, rude, brusque, impolite, uncivil, harsh
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from blunt
Translations[edit]
having a thick edge or point, not sharp
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dull in understanding; slow of discernment
abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious
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hard to impress or penetrate
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Noun[edit]
blunt (plural blunts)
- A fencer's practice foil with a soft tip.
- A short needle with a strong point.
- (smoking) A marijuana cigar.
- 2005: to make his point, lead rapper B-Real fired up a blunt in front of the cameras and several hundred thousand people and announced, “I'm taking a hit for every one of y'all!” — Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home (Simon & Schuster 2005, p. 461)
- (Britain, slang, archaic, uncountable) money
- 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, OCLC 28228280:
- Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt […]
- A playboating move resembling a cartwheel performed on a wave.
Translations[edit]
cigar filled with marijuana
Etymology 2[edit]
From Middle English blunten, blonten, from the adjective (see above).
Verb[edit]
blunt (third-person singular simple present blunts, present participle blunting, simple past and past participle blunted)
- To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt.
- (figuratively) To repress or weaken; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of
- It blunted my appetite.
- My feeling towards her have been blunted.
- 2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Liverpool 2 - 1 Liverpool”, in BBC[2]:
- That settled the Merseysiders for a short while but it did not blunt the home side's spirit.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker
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to repress or weaken
See also[edit]
Old French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Frankish *blund, from Proto-Germanic *blundaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ-.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
blunt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular blunde)
- Alternative form of blont
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from North Germanic languages
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
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- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Smoking
- British English
- English slang
- English terms with archaic senses
- English uncountable nouns
- English verbs
- en:Marijuana
- Old French terms borrowed from Frankish
- Old French terms derived from Frankish
- Old French terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old French terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old French terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old French lemmas
- Old French adjectives