dun

plural duns

1. uncountableusuallyA brownish grey colour.

   Synonyms: claybank

1. not comparableOf a brownish grey colour.

   Where is the nobility in these streets paved with greasy carbon and dun ash?

   2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Terminal One (Legendary)

   3 more examples

   Come, thick Night, And pall thee in the dunneſt ſmoake of Hell, That my keene Knife ſee not the Wound it makes, Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke, To cry, hold, hold.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 134, column 2, lines 48–49

   My Miſtres eyes are nothing like the Sunne, Currall is farre more red, then her lips red, If ſnow be white, why then her breſts are dun: If hairs be wiers, black wiers grow on her head: [...]

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   Red o'er the forest glows the setting sun, / The line of yellow light dies fast away / That crown'd the eastern copse, and chill and dun / Falls on the moor the brief November day.

   1827, [John Keble], “Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 85

plural duns

1. countableA collector of debts, especially one who is insistent and demanding.

   Melancholy duns came looking for him at all hours.

   1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XVIII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   "The truth is, Mr. Curl, I cannot write when I am plagued about trifles; and a tiresome dun this morning put to flight every idea that I had in the world." "Mr. Maynard," said the bookseller, in a solemn tone, "it is very wrong to run in debt."

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 162–163

   Look ye, gentlemen, I have lived with credit in the world, and it grieves my heart never to stir out of my doors but to be pulled by the sleeve by some rascally dun or other.

   1889 [1712], John Arbuthnot, The History of John Bull, London: Cassell & Co., →OCLC, page 71

   ‘Frank's worried about duns,’ she said as the butler went away.

   1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York, published 2007, page 102

2. An urgent request or demand of payment.

   Miss Hoppin received a dun for volume 9 1840–1 which Mr. James McConnell, (who now pays the above) is sure was paid.

   1842, A.B.G., “Errata”, in Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, volume 13, →OCLC, page 251

present singular third person duns · participle present dunning · participle past dunned · past dunned

1. transitiveTo ask or beset a debtor for payment.

   Of all he had received from Lady Bellaston, not above five guineas remained and that very morning he had been dunned by a tradesman for twice that sum.

   1 more example

   And hath she sent so soon to dun?

   1768, Jonathan Swift, The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, London: C. Bathurst, →OCLC, Miscellanies in Verse, page 309

2. transitiveTo harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.

   Rich bitches who had to be dunned for their milk bills would pay him right now.

   1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 107

plural duns

1. countableA newly hatched, immature mayfly; a mayfly subimago.

   Also, duns are dull and generally sober colored, whilst spinners are more brightly colored and shining and their wings are clear and transparent.

   1966, John Harris, An Angler's Entomology, New York: Barnes, →OCLC, page 16

2. countablefishingA fly made to resemble the mayfly subimago.

   We have besides for this Month a little Dun call'd a whirling Dun (though it is not the whirling Dun indeed, which is one of the best Flies we have) and for this the dubbing must be of the bottom fur of a Squirrels tail and the wing of the grey feather of a Drake.

   1676, Charles Cotton, The Compleat Angler. Being Instructions how to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a Clear Stream, London: Richard Marriott, and Henry Brome, →OCLC, March, page 59

plural duns · alternative doon · alternative dún

1. An ancient or medieval fortification; especially a hill-fort in Scotland or Ireland.

   1 more example

   Pampedun, or Pandon, was probably a place of residence from the earliest times; its sheltered situation for boats, and proximity to the ancient way over the river, protected perhaps by a dun or camp, on the height above [...] possibly gave origin to the ancient name of the place, Pampedun, from the British pant, a hollow, and dun, a fort or camp, Pant-y-dun.

   1858, Henry MacLauchlan, Memoir written during a survey of the Roman Wall, through the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, in the years 1852-1854, London: Printed for private circulation, →OCLC, page 9

2. archaeologyA structure in the Orkney or Shetland islands or in Scotland consisting of a roundhouse surrounded by a circular wall; a broch.

   Smaller than the broch was the dun, another type of stone-built 'roundhouse'.

   2013, T.J. Clarkson, The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings, Edinburgh: Birlinn, →ISBN

1. informalnonstandardpronunciation spellingEye dialect spelling of done: past participle of do.

   Now, ya dun it!

   2 more examples

   ...a wise old lady exclaimed, "Why Mrs. M. warn't you orful skeerd wunst when you seed a dog fight? [...] an that ere big yaller dog bit orf your baby's hand that minit; in cors he dun it, so now that settles it."

   1895 May 28, S.L.N. Foote, “Correspondence”, in International Journal of Medicine and Surgery, volume 8, retrieved 13 Oct 2016, page 194

   “Oh, Because I want their dollar. I don't want Anything they've not got. I never dun. I'm there, and they can pay me if they like. I go nowhere on purpose: I happen by. Sorry there is no cup to give you a drink.[…]

   2001 April 1, Robert Frost, Poems by Robert Frost: A Boy's Will and North of Boston, Penguin, →ISBN, →OCLC

2. informalnonstandardpronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of don't: contraction of do + not.

   Fwhere's he come from, I dun'no'. French or English, I dun'no'. But a gintleman born, I know.

   1901, Gilbert Parker, The Right of Way, New York and London: Harper, →OCLC

present singular third person duns · participle present dunning · participle past dunned · past dunned

1. datedtransitiveTo cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.

   Dun-fish are of a superior quality for the table, and are cured in such a manner as to give them a dun or brownish color. Fish for dunning are caught early in spring, and sometimes February, at the Isle of Shoals.

   1832, James Thacher, History of Plymouth; from its first settlement in 1620, to the year 1832, Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, →OCLC, page 317

plural duns

1. A mound or small hill.

1. Imitating a deep bass note, such as that found in suspenseful music.

   How would you deal with that power? (Dun, dun, DUN! Insert dramatic music here.)

   2009, Carrie Tucker, I Love Geeks: The Official Handbook, Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   Dun, dun! Dun, dun! As the music continues, the long shot of Griff's walk is broken down into repeating tight shots of his face, his legs, and his shifting point of view of Brockie.

   2015, Lisa Dombrowski, The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You, page 113

   'DUN DUN DUN DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN! DUN DUN DUN DUNDUN-DUN-DUN... PRESSURE!' By 2.05 a.m. I am Very Awake Indeed and the catastrophising continues.

   2016, Helen Russell, Leap Year: How small steps can make a giant difference

   Whenever that iconic riff in the score cued up—Dun dun ... dun dun ... dun dun dun dun dun-dun-dun-dun ... —Jack's heart would race, and she'd feel the fear on her skin.

   2020, Spencer Hamilton, The Fear: A Pandemic Horror Novel

plural duns

1. alternativeAlternative form of dhoon (“Himalayan valley”).

1. A river in Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, which flows into the River Kennet.
2. A river in Wiltshire and Hampshire, England, which flows into the River Test.
3. An alternative name for the River Don in Yorkshire, England.
4. A river in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, alternatively named the Glendun River.
5. A settlement and parish in Angus council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NO6659).
6. A surname

plural DUNs

1. Malaysiaa state legislative assembly
2. Malaysiaa state legislative assembly seat