From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Dumb \Dumb\, verb (used with an object) To put to silence. [Obs.] --Shak.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Dumb \Dumb\, adjective [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) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
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 Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
191 Moby Thesaurus words for "dumb": 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
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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