What's the difference between dark and dull?

Dark


Definition:

  • (a.) Destitute, or partially destitute, of light; not receiving, reflecting, or radiating light; wholly or partially black, or of some deep shade of color; not light-colored; as, a dark room; a dark day; dark cloth; dark paint; a dark complexion.
  • (a.) Not clear to the understanding; not easily seen through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
  • (a.) Destitute of knowledge and culture; in moral or intellectual darkness; unrefined; ignorant.
  • (a.) Evincing black or foul traits of character; vile; wicked; atrocious; as, a dark villain; a dark deed.
  • (a.) Foreboding evil; gloomy; jealous; suspicious.
  • (a.) Deprived of sight; blind.
  • (n.) Absence of light; darkness; obscurity; a place where there is little or no light.
  • (n.) The condition of ignorance; gloom; secrecy.
  • (n.) A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, or the like; as, the light and darks are well contrasted.
  • (v. t.) To darken to obscure.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) And that, as much as the “on water, operational” considerations, is why we are being kept in the dark.
  • (2) The first group was reared in complete darkness while the second one was subjected to permanent noise.
  • (3) In the dark the 6-azidoflavoproteins are quite stable, except for L-lactate oxidase, where spontaneous conversion to the 6-amino-FMN enzyme occurs slowly at pH 7.
  • (4) Most notably, retroperitoneal lymph nodes in rabbits remained dark blue up to 28 days after hindlimb endolymphatic instillation of liposomal patent blue.
  • (5) In the dark cortical zone of the nodes (III group) there occur tissue basophils (mast cells), that, together with increasing number of acidophilic granulocytes and appearance of neutrophilic cells, demonstrates that there is an inflammatory reaction in the organ studied as a response to the lymphocytic suspension injected.
  • (6) Urinalysis revealed a low pH, increased ketones and bilirubin excretion, dark yellowish change in color, the appearance of "leaflet-shaped" crystals and increased red blood cells and epithelial cells in the urinary sediment, increased water intake, decreased specific gravity and decreased sodium, potassium and chloride in the urine.
  • (7) We were searching for spontaneous and positional nystagmus in 5 positions with open eyes in darkness and with closed eyes.
  • (8) Previous FTIR measurements have identified several tyrosine residues that change their absorption characteristics between light-adapted BR and dark-adapted BR, or between intermediates K and M [Dollinger, G., Eisenstein, L., Lin, S.-L., Nakanishi, K., Odashima, K., & Termini, J.
  • (9) Steady state levels of chloroplast mRNA encoding the core PSII polypeptides remain nearly constant in the light or the dark and are not affected by the developmental stage of the plastid.
  • (10) The second triplet, which was stable in the dark at 4.2 K following illumination, was assigned to the radical pair Donor+I-.
  • (11) The results indicate that CRALBP X 11-cis-retinol is sufficiently stereoselective in its binding properties to warrant consideration as a component of the mechanism for the generation of 11-cis-retinaldehyde in the dark.
  • (12) Although the Ca2+-independent mechanism accounts for about two thirds of the total acetylcholine release in the dark, the amount of acetylcholine released in this way is small compared with the release of acetylcholine triggered by stimulation of the retina with light.
  • (13) The extracellular concentration of GABA is probably high in prolonged darkness, and it is low after prolonged light exposure.
  • (14) In lettuce, the presence of 2,4-D in the light lowered the concentration of total Hg (or MeHg) required to reduce growth by 50%, about 13 times relative to that in the dark (i.e., it sensitized the cells).
  • (15) This suggests that many retinal ganglion cells continue to discharge in total darkness for long periods.
  • (16) In darkness, raising the concentration of K in the fluid of perfusion gives an increase of the efflux of (86)Rb and increasing the extracellular concentration of Ca yields a retention.
  • (17) Upon illumination, a dark-adapted photosynthetic sample shows time-dependent changes in chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence yield, known as the Kautsky phenomenon or the OIDPS transient.
  • (18) One elderly woman was left alone in the dark for hours unable to find food or drink.
  • (19) These observations indicated a novel mechanism that in the absence of light-dark schedule, mothers taught the circadian rhythm to the pups as they raised them.
  • (20) It was observed that the circadian rhythm was disrupted by injections of lithium at the beginning of the light as well as the dark phase of the LD cycle.

Dull


Definition:

  • (superl.) Slow of understanding; wanting readiness of apprehension; stupid; doltish; blockish.
  • (superl.) Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward.
  • (superl.) Insensible; unfeeling.
  • (superl.) Not keen in edge or point; lacking sharpness; blunt.
  • (superl.) 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.
  • (superl.) Heavy; gross; cloggy; insensible; spiritless; lifeless; inert.
  • (superl.) 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.
  • (v. t.) To deprive of sharpness of edge or point.
  • (v. t.) To make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy, as the senses, the feelings, the perceptions, and the like.
  • (v. t.) To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish.
  • (v. t.) To deprive of liveliness or activity; to render heavy; to make inert; to depress; to weary; to sadden.
  • (v. i.) To become dull or stupid.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain," Wallace wrote at one point, "because something that's dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from."
  • (2) Similar systems were put in place at Dulles outside Washington DC, Newark and Chicago airports on Thursday.
  • (3) The soft, dull, malacic appearance of the center results from lack of a true surface layer of tangential collagen fibers.
  • (4) Here I am in Los Angeles being paid $30,000 to do next to nothing and still I'm finding life rather dull.
  • (5) A significant proportion of splenic B cells reacted with these mAb, although lower number (one-log less) than peritoneal B cells and a small proportion of H7dull+ splenic B cells seems to be Ly-1(CD5)dull+, 1 of 200 splenic B cells responded to IL-5 for IgM production.
  • (6) A 58-year-old man complained of dull left lower quadrant pain and constipation.
  • (7) They will begin next week at Liberty airport in Newark, New Jersey; Dulles, outside Washington DC; Chicago O’Hare, and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
  • (8) At both observations, crowns were rated on 5-point Likert scales for outline form, porosity, smoothness, reflectance, texture, dullness, defects, and general esthetic appearances.
  • (9) On the other hand AMH2 showed the dull-positive reaction with some monocytes and pleural exudate cells among above-mentioned cells.
  • (10) Britain’s Got Talent review – Simon Cowell is looking like Caligula after a dull day at the Coliseum Read more The show, won last year by boy band Collabro, began eight years ago with 4.9 million viewers, rising to 8.8 million for its second series launch before hitting the 10 million mark for the first time in 2009 with 10.3 million.
  • (11) Disseminated annular psoriasiform lesions developed over a period of 2 months in a 48-year-old man with no preceding psoriatic history of drug intake, being accompanied by general dullness and arthralgia.
  • (12) 3) At the severe stage, pain and dullness at the back, numbness at arms and hands, hand coldness, sleep disturbance etc.
  • (13) One month after surgery, she complained of swelling and a dull pain in the right leg without cardiorespiratory symptoms.
  • (14) Black-hair follicular dysplasia in dogs of mixed breeding was delineated by hypotrichosis and dullness of most black regions of the coat.
  • (15) Endoscopic examination disclosed an almost roundish, smooth-surfaced, flat and dull red area corresponding to IIc (slightly depressed type).
  • (16) Their surface phenotype was Thy-1+(dull), Ly-1.2+(dull), Lyt-2-, L3T4-, 9F3+, and 3A1+, which is consistent with that found in intact lpr mice.
  • (17) The engines, gearboxes and even the doors now have a complexity that sees them constructed elsewhere, but the transformation on this line of the dull sheen of aluminium parts into a moving vehicle at the other end is still something to behold.
  • (18) Flow cytometry showed three types of trophozoite staining by mAb: (i) bright staining of greater than 90% of trophozoites, with aggregation of the organisms; (ii) bright staining of approximately 90% of trophozoites, with little or no aggregation; (iii) dull staining of approximately 20% of trophozoites, without aggregation.
  • (19) The percentage of dull CD8+CD11b+ cells (natural killer cells) among TG-2 cells was lower than that in peripheral blood, but there was no significant difference in bright CD8+CD11b+ cells (suppressor-effector T cells) between thyroid glands and peripheral blood.
  • (20) It was filed in my mind as a pretty but dull destination, full of pensioners on package deals and cruises.