dun
Plural: duns
Noun
- horse of a dull brownish grey color
- a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color
- "she wore dun"
- A brownish grey colour.
- A collector of debts, especially one who is insistent and demanding.
- An urgent request or demand of payment.
- A newly hatched, immature mayfly; a mayfly subimago.
- A fly made to resemble the mayfly subimago.
- An ancient or medieval fortification; especially a hill-fort in Scotland or Ireland.
- A structure in the Orkney or Shetland islands or in Scotland consisting of a roundhouse surrounded by a circular wall; a broch.
- A mound or small hill.
- Alternative form of dhoon (“Himalayan valley”).
Verb
Verb Forms: dunned, dunning, duns
- To persistently demand payment of a debt from someone.
- treat cruelly
- persistently ask for overdue payment
- "The grocer dunned his customers every day by telephone"
- cure by salting
- "dun codfish"
- make a dun color
- To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
- To harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.
- Eye dialect spelling of done: past participle of do.
- Pronunciation spelling of don't: contraction of do not.
- To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
Adjective Satellite
- of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color
- "the dun and dreary prairie"
Adj
- Of a brownish grey colour.
Intj
- Imitating a deep bass note, such as that found in suspenseful music.
Adjective
- Of a dull grayish-brown color; dark and drab.
Examples
- He felt the pressure to score, as his opponent began to dun him with high-point words.
- Now, ya dun it!
- Of all he had received from Lady Bellaston, not above five guineas remained and that very morning he had been dunned by a tradesman for twice that sum.
- The dun color of the board seemed to reflect his equally dull tile rack.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”).
Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (compare Old Irish donn and Scottish Gaelic donn (“brown”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (compare Old Saxon dosan (“chestnut brown”)). More at dusk.
Synonyms
bedevil, crucify, fawn, frustrate, grayish brown, greyish brown, rag, torment, claybank, subimago
Scrabble Score: 4
dun: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Worddun: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
dun: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary