dunning

Verb (1)

dun (third-person singular simple present duns, present participle dunning, simple past and past participle dunned)

1. (transitive) To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
   • And hath she sent so soon to dun?1768, Jonathan Swift, The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, London: C. Bathurst, →OCLC, Miscellanies in Verse, page 309
2. (transitive) 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, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 107

Verb (2)

dun (third-person singular simple present duns, present participle dunning, simple past and past participle dunned)

1. (dated, transitive) To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
   • Dun-fish are of a superior quality for the table, and are cured in such a manner as to give them a dun or brownish color. Fish for dunning are caught early in spring, and sometimes February, at the Isle of Shoals.1832, James Thacher, History of Plymouth; from its first settlement in 1620, to the year 1832, Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, →OCLC, page 317

See all 21 meanings of dun