dull as dishwater

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Idioms and Phrases

Boring, tedious, as in That lecture was dull as dishwater . The original simile, dull as ditchwater , dating from the 1700s, alluded to the muddy water in roadside ditches. In the first half of the 1900s, perhaps through mispronunciation, it became dishwater , that is, the dingy, grayish water in which dirty dishes had soaked.

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Example Sentences

This is Beltway territory; we thrive on dull-as-dishwater debates.

From The Daily Beast

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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