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dun

 [duhn]   Example Sentences Origin

dun

1   [duhn] verb, dunned, dun·ning, noun
verb (used with object)
1.
to make repeated and insistent demands upon, especially for the payment of a debt.
noun
2.
a person, especially a creditor, who duns another.
3.
a demand for payment, especially a written one.

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Dun is one of our favorite verbs.
So is skedaddle. Does it mean:
to run away hurriedly; flee.
to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.
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Origin:
1620–30; origin obscure
Example Sentences
  • Dunlaps or dunlops: the belly dun lapped or lopped over the waist band.
  • The housing is similarly spartan, and relentlessly dun.
  • There are now programs that spot fraudulent workers' comp claims and others that help dun deadbeats for collection agencies.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

dun

2   [duhn]
adjective
1.
dull, grayish brown.
2.
dark; gloomy.
noun
3.
a dun color.
4.
a dun-colored horse with a black mane and tail.
5.
mayfly.
6.
Angling. dun fly.
Origin:
before 1000; Middle English dun(ne), Old English dunn; cognate with Old Saxon dun

Related forms
dun·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To dun
Collins
World English Dictionary
dun1 (dʌn)
 
—vb , duns, dunning, dunned
1.  (tr) to press or importune (a debtor) for the payment of a debt
 
—n
2.  a person, esp a hired agent, who importunes another for the payment of a debt
3.  a demand for payment, esp one in writing
 
[C17: of unknown origin]

dun2 (dʌn)
 
—n
1.  a brownish-grey colour
2.  a horse of this colour
3.  angling
 a.  an immature adult mayfly (the subimago), esp one of the genus Ephemera
 b.  an artificial fly imitating this or a similar fly
 
—adj , dunner, dunnest
4.  of a dun colour
5.  dark and gloomy
 
[Old English dunn; related to Old Norse dunna wild duck, Middle Irish doun dark; see dusk]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

dun
"to insist on payment of debt," 1620s, perhaps related to dunnen "to sound, resound, make a din," or shortened from dunkirk (c.1600) "privateer," a private vessel licensed to attack enemy ships during wartime, from Dunkirk, French port from which they sailed. Yet another, less likely, theory traces it
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to a Joe Dun, supposedly a London bailiff famous for catching defaulters. Related: Dunned; dunning.

dun
O.E. dunn "dingy brown, dark-colored," perhaps from Celt. (cf. O.Ir. donn "dark"), from PIE *donnos, *dusnos "dark."
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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