Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To importune (a debtor) for payment: a dunning letter.
- n. One that duns.
- n. An importunate demand for payment.
- n. An almost neutral brownish gray to dull grayish brown.
- n. A fishing fly having this color.
- n. A horse of this color.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of a color partaking of brown and black; of a dull-brown color; swarthy.
- Dark; gloomy.
- n. A familiar name for an old horse or jade: used as a quasi-proper name (like dobbin).
- To make of a dun or dull-brown color.
- Especially To cure, as cod, in such a manner as to impart a dun or brown color. See dunfish.
- To become of a dun color.
- To make a loud noise; din.
- To demand payment of a debt from; press or urge for payment or for fulfilment of an obligation of any kind.
- n. One who duns; an importunate creditor, or an agent employed to collect debts.
- n. A demand for the payment of a debt, especially a written one; a dunning-letter: as, to send one's debtor a dun.
- n. A hill; a mound; a fortified eminence. This word enters into the composition of many place-names in Great Britain, frequently under the modifled forms dum-, don-, -don (as well as down, which see): as, Dunstable, Dunmow, Dundee, Dunbar, Dumfries, Dumbarton, Doncaster, Donegal, etc.
- n. A dun-colored natural or artificial fly used in angling: as, the pale-olive dun, made with a body of hair from the polar bear; goose-dun, with a body of gray goose-pinion; blue dun, with a body of pale mole-fur.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable A brownish grey colour.
- adj. Of a brownish grey colour.
- n. countable A collector of debts.
- v. transitive To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
- v. transitive To harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.
- n. A valley in the Himalayan foothills, e.g. Dehra Dun.
- n. countable A newly hatched, immature mayfly.
- v. informal Eye dialect spelling of done: simple past tense and past participle of do.
- Eye dialect spelling of don't.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A mound or small hill.
- v. To cure, as codfish, in a particular manner, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with salt grass or some like substance.
- v. To ask or beset (e.g., a debtor), for payment; to urge importunately.
- n. One who duns; a dunner.
- n. An urgent request or demand of payment.
- adj. Of a dark color; of a color partaking of a brown and black; of a dull brown color; swarthy.
WordNet 3.0
- v. treat cruelly
- v. cure by salting
- v. make a dun color
- n. horse of a dull brownish grey color
- adj. of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color
- n. a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color
- v. persistently ask for overdue payment
Etymologies
- See don’t. (Wiktionary)
- Origin unknown.Middle English, from Old English dunn, perhaps of Celtic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Since I've left you all in candy-coated withdrawal, I wanted to return with a thrilling post on * dun dun dun* …”
“*lyts da half dun wurk 2 maek it fully dun… moar den fully dun*”
Camo-flaj… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“In all parts of the world these stripes occur far oftenest in duns and mouse-duns; by the term dun a large range of colour is included, from one between brown and black to a close approach to cream-colour.”
“He listened absently to a long dun from the type-writer people, his mind busy with ways and means of finding a job.”
“Phædrus, in short, dun-colored cape and little hard, round hat slung about his neck, comes out between”
“With him we went to see an ancient building, called a dun or borough.”
“The former were very beautiful, approaching in hue more nearly to a French gray than what is generally called a dun color, with a perfect ring of ivory encircling each pretty neck.”
“Brown comprises the hues called dun, hazel, auburn, feuillemort, mort d'ore, &c.; several of which have been already mentioned as allied to the tertiary colours.”
Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
“My dun was a peaceful beast, but the roan was a by-word in the sub-division.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dun’.
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I can haz cheezeburgerisms
dis iz y u cant spelcaturday, haz, habn't, derp, derpy, kitteh, teh, cyoot, mai, baw, kai, ai and 381 more...
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Uncommon Colours
azure, myrtle, periwinkle, viridian, jade, emerald, lime, chartreuse, asparagus, celadon, harlequin, olive and 147 more...
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horses
everything horses
horse, bay, bloodhorse, bloodstock, bolter, broncho, bronco, brumby, bucker, buckjumper, cob, cocktail and 200 more...
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AGRI - horse breeding
driving, implement, Trot, speed, exhale, dope, obstacle, tail, plow, coloration, para, weaving and 678 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Words I've found in reading.
paronomasia, spatulate, dun, cull, din, anthetic, thaumaturgic, natation, fettle, diurnal, simulacrum, propaedeutic and 14 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Invisible Man
Words culled from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
sweetback, inspirit, plasticine, atoss, hyperreceptivity, laugher-at-wounds, necrophily, monopolate, aliveness, thinker-tinker, weltschmerz, klieg and 113 more...
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Colors
Words for colors, including things so associated with a color that they can be used in reference to a color.
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, navy, lavender, turquoise, chartreuse and 218 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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Zamboni Palin
My imaginary lexicon for future megastar and visionary Zamboni Palin.
strewth, curple, speshly, ugly tree, whupping, nar'n, swain, sneezeweed, sciencey, snarleyyow, jackpudding, squanch and 304 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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Jamaican Glossary
The liner notes that accompany Papa San's dancehall album God & i include this thoughtful list of Jamaican-to-American translations, to aid in understanding what the heck he's saying in each song.
yah, yeh, yuy, woulda, wort, wid, wi, wes', wen, whey, wau, wanda and 151 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dun.

yarb They were eternally besetting, dunning, and tormenting me.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 11 Sep 11, 2008