blunt

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See also: Blunt

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /blʌnt/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌnt

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).

Adjective[edit]

blunt (comparative blunter, superlative bluntest)

  1. 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. […].
  2. Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      His wits are not so blunt.
  3. 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
    • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      a plain, blunt man
  4. Hard to impress or penetrate.
    • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.
  5. Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from blunt
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

blunt (plural blunts)

  1. A fencer's practice foil with a soft tip.
  2. A short needle with a strong point.
  3. (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)
  4. (Britain, slang, archaic, uncountable) money
    • (Can we date this quote by Charles Dickens and provide title, author's full name, and other details?), The Pickwick Papers
      Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt […]
  5. A playboating move resembling a cartwheel performed on a wave.
Translations[edit]

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)

  1. To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt.
  2. (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]

See also[edit]

Old French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *blundaz.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

blunt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular blunde)

  1. Alternative form of blont
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