dull vs frou-frou

dull

verb
  • To render dull; to remove or blunt an edge or something that was sharp. 

  • To soften, moderate or blunt; to make dull, stupid, or sluggish; to stupefy. 

  • To lose a sharp edge; to become dull. 

  • To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. 

adj
  • Not bright or intelligent; stupid; having slow understanding. 

  • Insensible; unfeeling. 

  • Not intense; felt indistinctly or only slightly. 

  • Sluggish, listless. 

  • Boring; not exciting or interesting. 

  • Not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster or brightness. 

  • Lacking the ability to cut easily; not sharp. 

  • Cloudy, overcast. 

  • Heavy; lifeless; inert. 

  • Not clear, muffled. 

frou-frou

verb
  • To move with the sound of rustling dresses. 

noun
  • A rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress. 

adj
  • Liable to create the sound of rustling cloth, similar to 19th-century dresses. 

  • Unimportant, silly, useless. 

  • Highly ornamented, overly elaborate; excessively girly. 

How often have the words dull and frou-frou occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )