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.