dumb

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}, {dumb}, {obtuse}, {slow}]
    2: temporarily incapable of speaking; "struck dumb"; "speechless
       with shock" [syn: {speechless}, {dumb}]
    3: lacking the power of human speech; "dumb animals"
    4: unable to speak because of hereditary deafness [syn: {dumb},
       {mute}, {silent}]
    

Dumb \Dumb\, v. t.
   To put to silence. [Obs.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster] dumbbell
    

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]
    

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. 
    

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