What does the word dumb mean?

Answer 1

-adjective 1. lacking intelligence or good judgment; stupid; dull-witted. 2. lacking the power of speech (often offensive when applied to humans): a dumb animal. 3. temporarily unable to speak: dumb with astonishment. 4. refraining from any or much speech; silent. 5. made, done, etc., without speech. 6. lacking some usual property, characteristic, etc. 7. performed in pantomime; mimed. 8. Computers. pertaining to the inability to do processing locally: A dumb terminal can input, output, and display data, but cannot process it. Compare intelligent (def. 4). 9. Nautical. a. (of a barge) without means of propulsion. b. (of any craft) without means of propulsion, steering, or signaling. -Verb phrase 10. dumb down, Informal. to make or become less intellectual, simpler, or less sophisticated: to dumb down a textbook; American movies have dumbed down.

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adj. dumb·er, dumb·est

# ## Lacking the power of speech. Used of animals and inanimate objects. ## Often Offensive Incapable of using speech; mute. Used of humans. See Usage Note at mute. # Temporarily speechless, as with shock or fear: I was dumb with disbelief. # Unwilling to speak; taciturn. # Not expressed or articulated in sounds or words: dumb resentment. # Nautical Not self-propelling. # Conspicuously unintelligent; stupid: dumb officials; a dumb decision. # Unintentional; haphazard: dumb luck. tr.v. dumbed, dumb·ing, dumbs

To make silent or dumb.

Phrasal Verb(s):

dumb down/up Slang To rewrite for a less educated or less sophisticated audience.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

dumb'ly adv., dumb'ness n.

Our Living Language : In ordinary spoken English, a sentence such as He is dumb will be interpreted to mean "He is stupid" rather than "He lacks the power of speech." "Lacking the power of speech" is, however, the original sense of the word, but it has been eclipsed by the meaning "stupid." For this change in meaning, it appears that the Germans are responsible. German has a similar and related word dumm that means "stupid," and over time, as a result of the waves of German immigrants to the United States, it has come to influence the meaning of English dumb. This is one of dozens of marks left by German on American English. Some words, like kindergarten, dachshund,and schnapps still have a German feel or are associated to some extent with Germany, but others, like bum, cookbook, fresh (in the meaning "impertinent"), rifle, and noodle have become so thoroughly Americanized their German origins may surprise some.

dumb

O.E. dumb "silent, unable to speak," from PIE *dheubh- "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness." O.E., Goth. (thumb) and O.N. (dumbr) forms meant only "mute, speechless;" in O.H.G. (thumb) it meant both this and "stupid," and in Mod.Ger. this latter became the only sense. Meaning "foolish, ignorant" was occasionally in Eng. from c.1323, but modern use (1823) comes from infl. of Ger. dumm. Applied to silent contrivances, hence dumbwaiter (1749). To dumb down is from 1933.

dumb

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] 2. temporarily incapable of speaking; "struck dumb"; "speechless with shock" [syn: speechless] 3. lacking the power of human speech; "dumb animals" 4. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness

Main Entry: dumb

Pronunciation: 'd&m

Function: adjective

1 : lacking the power of speech dumb from birth>

2 : naturally incapable of speech <dumbanimals> -dumb·ly /'d&m-lE/ adverb-dumb·ness noun

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

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. reference: dictionary.reference.com

Answer 2

It means slow-witted, dull, obtuse, benumbed, bemused, absurd, inane, banal, tiresome, and tedious. I'm sure there's other definitions for the word 'dumb', but that's all I've got.