dumb

1. a. Destitute of the power of speech; unable; to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes. Source: opted

2. a. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. Source: opted

3. a. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. Source: opted

4. v. t. To put to silence. Source: opted

5. adj. slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity Source: wordnet

6. adj. temporarily incapable of speaking Source: wordnet

7. adj. lacking the power of human speech Source: wordnet

8. adj. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness Source: wordnet

9. 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. To put to silence. [Obs.] Shak. Source: webster

10. To put to silence. [Obs.] Shak. Source: adambom

11. j:100 s. lacking the power of human speech s. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness Source: ecdict

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