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more about dumb
dumb |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Dumb \Dumb\, v. t. To put to silence. [Obs.] --Shak. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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. To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures. --Hooker. 2. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words as dumb show This spirit, dumb to us will speak to him --Shak. To pierce into the dumb past. -- J. C. Shairp 3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.] Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color. --De Foe. {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}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: 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}] From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]: 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.
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