Dun has 18 different meanings across 5 categories:
Noun · Verb · Adjective · Intj · Proper Noun
horse of a dull brownish grey color
"The stable hand led out a quiet dun pony to show me how its coat faded into that distinctive brownish-grey shade under the sun."
a color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color
"she wore dun"
A brownish grey colour.
"The children climbed over a grassy dun near the edge of the field to get a better view of the horizon."
A collector of debts.
A newly hatched, immature mayfly; a mayfly subimago.
An ancient or medieval fortification; especially a hill-fort in Scotland or Ireland.
A mound or small hill.
In plain English: A dun is a small, often artificial, hill.
"The sheep grazed peacefully on the dun overlooking the valley."
Usage: Dun (noun) refers to an artificial mound of earth, often created by human activity like mining or quarrying; think of it as a man-made hill. It's a relatively uncommon term, primarily used in specific geographic regions and historical contexts.
make a dun color
"The artisan mixed white clay with soot to produce a rich, earthy hue for the pottery's glaze."
To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
"The fishermen spent the winter stacking their heavily salted cod on beds of damp saltgrass to properly dun the fish before they could be smoked."
Eye dialect spelling of done: past participle of do
To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
In plain English: To "dun" means to preserve fish using salt and letting it sit in a cool, dark spot.
"The fishermen carefully dunned the cod to preserve it for the long winter."
Usage: Dun (verb) refers specifically to the traditional process of curing codfish-stacking salted fish and covering it with material like saltgrass to allow it to dry and mature. Don't use "dun" for any other type of curing or drying; it has this very specific, historical meaning.
Of a brownish grey colour.
"The old horse's coat faded to a dusty dun as it grew older in the sun."
In plain English: Dun means a muted grayish-brown color.
"The old stone walls were a comforting dun color."
Usage: Use "dun" to describe a specific shade of grayish-brown, often resembling that of wheat or old leather. It's less common than "gray" or "brown," and typically appears in descriptions of animals or natural landscapes.
Imitating suspenseful music.
"The detective's slow, deliberate walk through the empty hallway was so dun that everyone holding their breath felt like they were in a thriller movie."
A river in Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, which flows into the River Kennet.
"We spent our holiday walking along the banks of the Dun to see where it meets the Kennet."