obtuse

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Blunt

   Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.

   • For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not.
   • See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!
   • Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?
2. 2

   Intellectually dull or dim-witted.

   • When the elder Osborne gave what he called "a hint," there was no possibility for the most obtuse to mistake his meaning. He called kicking a footman downstairs a hint to the latter to leave his service.
   • Be you a Remainer or a Leaver, you would have to be particularly obtuse not to see that [Theresa] May's hard Tory Brexit will cost this country and its families more than it can conceivably afford.
3. 3

   Of sound, etc.

   Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted.

4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Indirect or circuitous.

   2. 5

      To dull or reduce an emotion or a physical state.

      • Fouler. To tread, ſtampe, or trample on; to bruiſe, or cruſh, by ſtamping; hurt, or obtuſe, by treading on; […]

The neighborhood

• synonymobtuse-angledof a triangle
• synonymblunt
• synonymdull
• antonymbrightantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymintelligentantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymon the ballantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymquick off the markantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymquick-wittedantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymsharpantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymsmartantonym(s) of “intellectually dull”
• antonymclearantonym(s) of “deadened, muffled, muted”
• antonymacuteantonym(s) of “of an angle”
• antonymacute-angledantonym(s) of “of a triangle”
• antonympointedantonym(s) of “now chiefly botany, zoology”