Definition of "dullness"

dullness

/ˈdʌl.nəs/

noun
usually uncountable, plural dullnesses
1. The quality of being slow of understanding things; stupidity.
2. The quality of being uninteresting; boring; humorless or irksome.
  Quotations
  If to raise malicious smiles at the infirmities or misfortunes of those who have never injured us be the province of wit or Humour, Heaven grant me a double Portion of Dullness—
  1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.ii
3. Lack of interest or excitement.
4. The lack of visual brilliance; want of sheen.
5. (of an edge) bluntness.
6. The quality of not perceiving or kenning things distinctly.
7. (archaic) Drowsiness.
  Quotations
  Prospero: […] Thou art inclin'd to sleep. 'Tis a good dulness, / And give it way— I know thou canst not choose.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]