Obtuse

Quick meaning: Obtuse is an adjective meaning (now chiefly botany, zoology) Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.

Meaning

(now chiefly botany, zoology) Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form.

More Meanings

1. Intellectually dull or dim-witted.
2. Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted.
3. Indirect or circuitous.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To dull or reduce an emotion or a physical state.

Example Sentences

Yet you do not brighten what would otherwise be dull, impart a keenness to the obtusest point, and diffuse a general lustre?

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!

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.

Word Forms

• obtuser
• obtusest
• obtuses
• obtusing
• obtused

Synonyms for obtuse

Depending on context, synonyms include dense, dim, dim-witted, thick, thickheaded, deadened.

Antonyms for obtuse

Common opposites include bright, intelligent, quick-witted, sharp, smart, clear.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include dense, purblind, slow, stupid, dull, dumb.

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