Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Dull; flat; noting a defect of spirit or animation, and also of courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; lethargic; pithless; vapid; wanting force; frivolous.
- Dull; hollow: as, a dowf sound.
Wiktionary
Etymologies
- From Icelandic daufur ("deaf, dull"), from Old Norse daufr ("deaf"), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰūbʰ-, *dʰūp- (“to smoke”). Cognate with Old English dēaf ("deaf"). Compare dove ("to slumber"). More at deaf. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And owsen frae the furrowed field return sae dowf and weary o,”
“Return sae dowf and wearie O! How noble that is, how natural, how unconsciously Greek!”
“The bridegroom might pass, in his manly prime and his scarlet coat, although a dowf gallant; but who would have thought that Nelly Carnegie in the white brocade which was her grandmother's the day that made her sib to Rothes -- Nelly Carnegie who flouted at love and lovers, and sported a free, light, brave heart, would have made so dowie a bride?”
Girlhood and Womanhood The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes
“Return sae dowf and weary, O! Down by the burn, where scented birks [137]”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dowf’.
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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hernesheir Century Dictionary: "Dull; flat; noting a defect of spirit or animation, and also of courage; melancholy; gloomy; inactive; lethargic; pithless; vapid; wanting force; frivolous."
Dec 22, 2010