But I gazed long and raptly at the wonderful textures of spongy grass, dully reflective flagstones, and dreaming concrete.

NEWYORKER: Flashes of Light

And so it goes dully on, a political process constipated by its own lack of real conviction, hence one that's only ever really animated by scandal.

BBC: A Point of View: Lords, lordlings and�� crumpets

Its dark panels shone dully under the hall light.

NEWYORKER: Miracle Polish

Not a dully personal secret, like an affair or a small crime or, say, a missing testicle but a scientific secret, that rare kind of secret that, in our current age, still manages to bend our knee.

NEWYORKER: The Region of Unlikeness

He nodded towards the pain inflicted by storm Sandy and then moved on to the stump speech that anyone who has attended more than one rally knows so well - the five-point plan, the anecdote about the US flag rescued from the space shuttle Challenger disaster, the dully-delivered homilies about the need for change.

BBC: Barack Obama's 'firewall' burning - Republicans