dull as dishwater

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.

Related Words

• bleak
• desolate
• dingy
• dismal
• dreary
• gray
• lackluster
• muddy
• run down
• shabby
• somber