Dull red frequently appears in literature as a muted, earthy hue that evokes both physical and emotional landscapes. In architectural descriptions, the color emphasizes a sense of age and solidity—as seen in the bricks of a president’s house that alternate between dull red and gray ([1], [2]). It also colors the human experience, subtly marking moments of emotion: a character’s flush of anger or embarrassment depicted as a dull red spreading over the face ([3], [4], [5], [6]), or even as a sign of vulnerability when a cheek becomes soothed by that very shade ([7]). Nature, too, is rendered with this color, with autumnal imagery featuring dull red leaves or distant glows hinting at a fading fire in the sky ([8], [9], [10]). Throughout these examples, dull red functions not as a brilliant, attention-grabbing tone, but rather as a subdued, lifelike detail that deepens realism in the narrative.
- On the right of the large campus was the president’s house, built of brick alternately dull red and gray, brought over from England.
— from Peggy Owen at Yorktown by Lucy Foster Madison
- Nothing had changed; the house was as before, The dull red brick, the windows sealed or wide: "I will go in," he said.
— from The Daffodil Fields by John Masefield
- The dull red flooded into Uncle Jabez's cheeks, and for once gave him a little color.
— from Ruth Fielding At College; or, The Missing Examination Papers by Alice B. Emerson
- The dull red in his face deepened.
— from The Broken Gate: A Novel by Emerson Hough
- He stepped back, and his face grew dull red.
— from Montlivet by Alice Prescott Smith
- His heart beat so violently when he raised his eyes that it seemed to him as if he could hear it—a dull red flush rose to his face, his lips quivered.
— from The Shadow of a Sin by Charlotte M. Brame
- A dull red mottled Linda's cheeks.
— from Her Father's Daughter by Gene Stratton-Porter
- Ahead was a dull red glow in the sky where Bosambo's fires burnt.
— from Bosambo of the River by Edgar Wallace
- A dull red glow in the west told where the sun was going down.
— from Not Pretty, but Precious; And Other Short Stories
- Like a match it caught fire and flared out through the mist, a dull red light.
— from The Boy Scouts of the Life Saving Crew by Robert Shaler