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Dictionary Results For "Dumb" [?]/[OPML]
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English

Etymology

From {{term|dumb||silent, mute, unable to speak}}. Cognate with the . The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless were established under the influence of the German word dumm.

Pronunciation


Adjective

  1. Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
  2. : His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with a self-taught kind of sign language.
  3. In the Context of Describing something, especially a person, that is extremely stupid.
  4. : You dumb oaf, you can't fix an engine by hitting it with a hammer!
  5. Describing something unintellectual.
  6. : Harry had the dumb, brainless job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
  7. pointless|Pointless, or serving to create more problems than it solves.
  8. : This is dumb! We're just driving in circles! We ought to have asked for directions an hour ago!


Synonyms


Translations

Verb

  1. To silence.
  2. * 1911 Lindsay Swift William Lloyd Garrison p. 272
  3. *: The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.
  4. To make stupid.
  5. * 2003 Angela Calabrese Barton Teaching Science for Social Justice p. 124
  6. *: "I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
  7. To represent as stupid.
  8. * 2004 Stephen Oppenheimer The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa p. 107
  9. *: Bad-mouthing Neanderthals ... is symptomatic of a need to exclude and even demonize .... I suggest that the unproven dumbing of the Neanderthals is an example of the same cultural preconception ....
  10. To reduce the intellectual demands of.
  11. * 2002 Deborah Meier In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing p. 126
  12. *: [T]he ensuing storm caused the department to lower the bar — amid protests that this was dumbing the test down — so that only 80 percent of urban kids would fail. ...


Derived terms


fa:dumb fr:dumb io:dumb hu:dumb pl:dumb ru:dumb simple:dumb fi:dumb ta:dumb te:dumb vi:dumb zh:dumb

GNU Project's publication of CIDE, the Collaborative International Dictionary of English Dumb \Dumb\, v. t.
To put to silence. [Obs.] --Shak.
[1913 Webster] dumbbell
GNU Project's publication of CIDE, the Collaborative International Dictionary of English Dumb \Dumb\, a. [AS. dumb; akin to D. dom stupid, dumb, Sw.
dumb, Goth. dumbs; cf. Gr. ? blind. See Deaf, and cf.
Dummy.]
1. Destitute of the power of speech; unable; to utter
articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes.
[1913 Webster]

To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures.
--Hooker.
[1913 Webster]

2. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not
accompanied by words; as, dumb show.
[1913 Webster]

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]

To pierce into the dumb past. -- J. C.
Shairp.
[1913 Webster]

3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.]
[1913 Webster]

Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color.
--De Foe.
[1913 Webster]

Deaf and dumb. See Deaf-mute.

Dumb ague, or Dumb chill, a form of intermittent fever
which has no well-defined "chill." [U.S.]

Dumb animal, any animal except man; -- usually restricted
to a domestic quadruped; -- so called in contradistinction
to man, who is a "speaking animal."

Dumb cake, a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's
eve, with certain mystic ceremonies, to discover their
future husbands. --Halliwell.

Dumb cane (Bot.), a west Indian plant of the Arum family
(Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the
tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of
speech.

Dumb crambo. See under crambo.

Dumb show.
(a) Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown
in pantomime. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise."
--Shak.
(b) Signs and gestures without words; as, to tell a story
in dumb show.

To strike dumb, to confound; to astonish; to render silent
by astonishment; or, it may be, to deprive of the power of
speech.

Syn: Silent; speechless; noiseless. See Mute.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet dumb
adj 1: slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity;
"so dense he never understands anything I say to him";
"never met anyone quite so dim"; "although dull at
classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly
quick"- Thackeray; "dumb officials make some really
dumb decisions"; "he was either normally stupid or
being deliberately obtuse"; "worked with the slow
students" [syn: dense, dim, dull, obtuse, slow]
2: unable to speak temporarily; "struck dumb"; "speechless with
shock" [syn: speechless]
3: lacking the power of human speech; "dumb animals"
4: unable to speak because of hereditary deafness [syn: mute,
silent]
Moby Dictionary
Boeotian , abiotic , anaudic , animal , animalian , animalic ,
animalistic , aphasic , aphonic , apish , asinine , awkward , azoic ,
batty , beastlike , beastly , beef-brained , beef-witted , befooled ,
beguiled , besotted , bestial , blankminded , blockheaded , blockish ,
bovine , brainless , breathless , brief , brusque , brutal , brute ,
brutelike , brutish , buffoonish , callow , chumpish , cloddish , close ,
close-tongued , closemouthed , cockeyed , concise , cowish , crass ,
crazy , credulous , curt , daffy , daft , dazed , dense , dizzy , doltish ,
doting , dull , dullard , dumbfounded , dumbstricken , dumbstruck ,
duncical , duncish , economical of words , empty , empty-headed ,
exanimate , fat , fatheaded , fatuitous , fatuous , flaky , fond , fool ,
foolheaded , foolish , fuddled , futile , gaga , gauche , goofy , green ,
groping , gross , gulled , idiotic , ignorant , imbecile , inane ,
inanimate , inanimated , inarticulate , incoherent ,
indisposed to talk , indistinct , ineducable , inept , inert ,
inexperienced , infatuated , innocent , insane , insensate , insensible ,
insentient , instinctive , instinctual , klutzy , know-nothing , kooky ,
laconic , lifeless , loony , lumpish , mad , maudlin , maundering ,
mindless , moronic , mum , mute , naive , nescient , nonconscious ,
nonliving , nonrational , numskulled , nutty , oafish , opaque , quiet ,
raw , reticent , sappy , screwy , senseless , sentimental , short ,
silent , silly , simple , snug , sottish , soulless , sparing of words ,
speechless , strange to , stricken dumb , stupid , subhuman , taciturn ,
tentative , terse , thick , thick-witted , thoughtless , tight-lipped ,
tongue-tied , tongueless , unacquainted , unanimated , unapprized ,
uncommunicative , uncomprehending , unconscious , unconversant ,
unenlightened , unfamiliar , unfeeling , unilluminated , uninformed ,
uninitiated , unintelligent , unknowing , unloquacious , unposted ,
unripe , unsure , untalkative , unteachable , unversed , vacuous ,
voiceless , wacky , wet , witless , word-bound , wordless , wrongheaded ,
zoic , zooidal , zoologic


Dumb from natural infirmity (Ex. 4:11); not knowing what to say (Prov. 31:8); unwillingness to speak (Ps. 39:9; Lev. 10:3). Christ repeatedly restored the dumb (Matt. 9:32, 33; Luke 11:14; Matt. 12:22) to the use of speech.
DUMB. One who cannot speak; a person who is mute. See Deaf and dumb, Deaf, dumb, and blind; Mute, standing mute.
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