dun

noun8

1. •
   A brownish grey colour.
2. •
   A collector of debts, especially one who is insistent and demanding.

   • 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
3. •
   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
4. •
   An ancient or medieval fortification; especially a hill-fort in Scotland or Ireland.
5. •
   A 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
6. •
   A 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
7. •
   A fly made to resemble the mayfly subimago.
8. •
   A mound or small hill.

verb3

1. •
   To 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.
2. •
   To 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
3. •
   (old-fashioned) To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.

adjective1

1. •
   Of a brownish grey colour.

   • 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. — 1606

exclamation1

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

   • 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

noun2

1. •
   (Malaysia) a state legislative assembly
2. •
   (Malaysia) a state legislative assembly seat