What's the difference between dull and frown?

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.

Frown


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To contract the brow in displeasure, severity, or sternness; to scowl; to put on a stern, grim, or surly look.
  • (v. i.) To manifest displeasure or disapprobation; to look with disfavor or threateningly; to lower; as, polite society frowns upon rudeness.
  • (v. t.) To repress or repel by expressing displeasure or disapproval; to rebuke with a look; as, frown the impudent fellow into silence.
  • (n.) A wrinkling of the face in displeasure, rebuke, etc.; a sour, severe, or stere look; a scowl.
  • (n.) Any expression of displeasure; as, the frowns of Providence; the frowns of Fortune.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The BBC traditionally frowns on its presenters, especially those in BBC News, using columns to comment on news and current affairs.
  • (2) As soon as I called them and was like, 'Hey guys, it's OK, I'm not smoking meth or anything,' it was OK." He adds, frowning: "I don't really know why it happened… My girlfriend told me everyone had been saying, [he puts on a sulky voice] 'Man, Mac's shows aren't crazy any more.'
  • (3) Indeed, such parochialism would be downright frowned upon by today's World Cup mentality, considering that both the official anthem and slogan this time round is the typically Fifa-ishly nonsensical, and distinctly Benetton-esque, "We Are One".
  • (4) By then Wenger's frown lines had deepened in the wake of some heavy limping on Mikel Arteta's part.
  • (5) The result is that society places a high value on conformity and expressions of individuality are frowned upon; there is a strong emphasis on upholding social “norms” and keeping up appearances – in public if not necessarily in private.
  • (6) They’re re-education centres for those who’ve lost their way.” Viktor frowns: “Why are you so interested in gulags?
  • (7) His bastard Ramsay has shown his colors (whatever color is for sadism), but Roose – who abstains from alcohol and only offers a smirk at Lady Stark here, a frown with Jaime Lannister there – is still a cypher.
  • (8) But I hadn’t realised until relatively late in my obsession how other fellow non-U-ers frowned on it too.
  • (9) The sale or production of pornography in India remains illegal and taboo, and sex outside marriage is frowned upon.
  • (10) Working with both hands and frowning at the monitor, Pring reduces the size of her stomach by 90% by creating a “stomach pouch”, a stapled-off part the size of an egg.
  • (11) Even without this legislation, the law generally frowns upon what Rasch calls “self help”.
  • (12) Patients who are candidates for this type of surgery include those who have a long forehead, a short forehead, deep wrinkles, or thinner skin, as well as patients with deep frown lines and hyperactive corrugator muscles.
  • (13) There are other points of comparison – the instinct for PR moments, the actorly frown and catch in the voice, the appealing family pictures – but these are the essential ones.
  • (14) She is frowning on the hostile takeover bid from Spain's ACS (which in Florentino Pérez just so happens to share a chairman with Real Madrid) for Hochtief, Germany's biggest builder.
  • (15) Cycle furiously while bent over your handlebars with a deep frown!
  • (16) When some Soviet officials violated that principle, it was frowned upon.
  • (17) A novel feature is accurate compensation for 'smile' or 'frown' profiles as well as for the possible splay or curvature of lanes.
  • (18) Not for the last time during our meeting, Black Francis frowns and nods briskly, in a way which suggests that something I find a bit peculiar doesn't seem particularly peculiar to him.
  • (19) With David T Neal from the University of Southern California she recently published a paper entitled "Embodied Emotion Perception: Amplifying and Dampening Facial Feedback Modulates Emotional Perception Accuracy" , which found that using Botox – a neurotoxin injected into muscles to reduce frown lines – reduces a person's ability to empathise with others.
  • (20) He frowned on the kind of rampant drug use that characterised The Warehouse's big competitor, The Music Box: "I wouldn't allow those type of things to happen in my club," he told one interviewer, firmly.