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if used as a figurative (of a text), then dense means it's hard to understand because of a complexity of ideas...

if dense is used as figurative (of a person), then dense means that it's difficult to explain anything to that person because they can't make sense of complex ideas (because their head is too "dense" or "thick" to get anything through)

It does not mean stupid although it is often used to describe people who are also stupid. For example, a lawyer who argues what the word "is" means could be described as dense. Stupid is lacking in intelligence whereas dense infers that a person's head is too thick to teach anything to him/her.

People who exhaust you by asking for further clarification on anything from policies and procedures by asking questions they wouldn't ask had they understood your previous answer to one of their previous questions are dense - their skulls are too thick to get anything through to their heads so they don't understand even the simplest lowest common denominator definitions!

A dense person is the opposite of an airhead, although about as useful.
If you had to read this definition several times to understand it - and you still don't really understand it, it is because you are dense.
dense by unicornmoans April 23, 2010
not exactly stupid, the person can be book smart but can also be: thick headed, clueless, lacking common sense, unable to catch onto hints
Caty: So has he catched on that you like him yet?

Helen: Sigh...no..Peter's so dense..
Dense by nomnomnomcake:D November 19, 2011
Oh my god, your so dense. I bet even if he kissed you you would be like,"He hates me?"
Dense by SortOfSmart101 August 1, 2016
People are really dense.
dense by lilmissjessi July 17, 2003
Someone who lacks common sense, acts like an idiot and makes a fool of themselves without realising.
I cant believe she cheated on him and didn't tell him for month, she thought everything would be okay, shes sooo dense.
Dense by *Taylor_Kimi* January 12, 2006
Being very ignorant, and or difficult
You dense motherfucker
Dense by DefaultProdigy June 23, 2014