Dumb word meaning and definition

[adjective] unable to speak because of hereditary deafness
[adjective] lacking the power of human speech; "dumb animals"
[adjective] unable to speak temporarily; "struck dumb"; "speechless with shock"
[adjective] 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"

\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}.
\Dumb\, v. t. To put to silence. [Obs.] --Shak.

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