Definition of DUMB

dumb

Adjective Satellite

  • slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity; ; ; - Thackeray
    • "dumb officials make some really dumb decisions"
  • temporarily incapable of speaking
    • "struck dumb"
  • lacking the power of human speech
    • "dumb animals"
  • unable to speak because of hereditary deafness

Adj

  • Unable to speak; lacking power of speech (kept in "deaf, dumb, and blind").
  • Not talkative; taciturn or unwilling to speak.
  • Having no input or voice in running things.
  • Unaccompanied by words or speech, silent, wordless.
  • Not producing any sound, silent.
  • Stupid.
  • Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
  • Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
  • Not equipped with intelligent behavior or processing capabilities of its own.
  • Lacking brightness or clearness as a colour; dim, dull.
  • An intensifier expressing contempt; damn, damned.

Verb

Verb Forms: dumbed, dumbing, dumbs

  • To strike speechless or make silent; to render inarticulate.
  • To silence.
  • To make stupid.
  • To represent as stupid.
  • To reduce the intellectual demands of.

Adv

  • Very, extremely.

Adjective

  • Unable to speak; lacking the power of speech or reason.

Examples

  • A perfectly timed challenge can dumb an opponent into silence.
  • Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
  • dumb show
  • His opponent was left dumb after his unexpected triple-word play.
  • His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with sign language.
  • This is dumb! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!
  • You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).
The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots dumb (“dumb, silent”), North Frisian dom, domme (“dumb, stupid”), West Frisian dom (“dumb, stupid”), Dutch dom (“dumb, stupid”), German dumm (“dumb, stupid”), Danish dum (“stupid”), Swedish dum (“stupid”), Icelandic dumbur (“dumb, mute”). See also deaf.

Synonyms

dense, dim, dull, mute, obtuse, silent, slow, speechless, Boeotian, addlebrained, addlepated, airheaded, ass-brained, banal, bare, bee-brained, beef-witted, beefheaded, beetle-headed, birdbrained, blockheaded, boneheaded, boofheaded, brainless, bubbleheaded, buffle-headed, bullet-headed, cerebrally challenged, childish, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, crackbrained, cretinous, dented, dim-bulb, dim-headed, dim-witted, doltish, dopey, dozy, drowsy, dull-headed, dull-minded, dull-witted, dumb, dumb as a bag of hammers, dumb as a box of rocks, dumb as a doorknob, dumb as a post, dumb as a sack of hammers, dumb as an ox, dumb as dirt, dumber than a box of rocks, dumber than a rock, dunderheaded, empty-headed, fatheaded, feeble-minded, flea-brained, foolish, fuckwitted, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, half-brained, half-witted, hammer-headed, hella, idiotic, imbecilic, inane, insipid, intellectually challenged, knuckleheaded, lamebrained, lowbrow, lumpish, lunkheaded, mad, mentally challenged, mentally retarded, mindless, monosynaptic, moronic, muttonheaded, nitwitted, not the sharpest crayon in the box, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, not the sharpest tool in the shed, numbskulled, oafish, odee, peabrained, pratty, pudding-headed, puerile, purblind, quarter-witted, retarded, ridiculous, rockheaded, sharp as a bowling ball, sheep-headed, shit-for-brains, silly, simple, slow-witted, smooth-brained, stolid, stupid, thick, thick as a brick, thick as a plank, thick as a whale omelette, thick as champ, thick as mince, thick as pig shit, thick as two short planks, thick-skulled, thickheaded, thickwitted, type, unapprehensive, unclever, unintelligent, unsmart, vacant, vacuous, vulgar, wicked, witless, wooden-headed, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, wordless

Antonyms

intelligent, smart

Scrabble Score: 9

dumb: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
dumb: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
dumb: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 12

dumb: valid Words With Friends Word