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DUMB
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Unable to speak because of hereditary deafness
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lacking the power of human speech
Example:
dumb animals
Classified under:
Similar:
inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Temporarily incapable of speaking
Example:
speechless with shock
Synonyms:
dumb; speechless
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity
Example:
worked with the slow students
Synonyms:
dense; dim; dull; dumb; obtuse; slow
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
stupid (lacking or marked by lack of intellectual acuity)
Derivation:
dumbness (the quality of being mentally slow and limited)
Context examples:
Deef I am, and dumb, as ye should be for the sake iv your mother; an’ never once have I opened me lips but to say fine things iv them an’ him, God curse his soul, an’ may he rot in purgatory ten thousand years, and then go down to the last an’ deepest hell iv all!
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Motionless, rigid, staring; moaning in the same dumb way from time to time, with the same helpless motion of the head; but giving no other sign of life.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The isle was uninhabited; my shipmates I had left behind, and nothing lived in front of me but dumb brutes and fowls.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
They felt this most when singing time came, for Beth could only play, Jo stood dumb as a stone, and Amy broke down, so Meg and Mother sang alone.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It is not despair of success that keeps me dumb.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I was struck dumb with astonishment at the sight of her; but my emotions were nothing to those which showed themselves upon her face when our eyes met.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Our choir will be dumb without you.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was dumb when she leaned beside the harp again, playing it, but not sounding it, with her right hand.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was a piteous sight, the once rosy face so changed and vacant, the once busy hands so weak and wasted, the once smiling lips quite dumb, and the once pretty, well-kept hair scattered rough and tangled on the pillow.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
These words I not only thought, but uttered; and thrusting back all my misery into my heart, I made an effort to compel it to remain there—dumb and still.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
