English
Etymology
From the Old English word dumb, meaning silent, mute, unable to speak. Cognate with the Old Norse word dumbr. The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless were established under the influence of the German word dumm.
Pronunciation
IPA|/d�m/
:Rhymes: Rhymes:English:-�m|-�m
Adjective
en-adj|dumber|dumbest
- Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
#:His younger brother was born dumb, and communicated with a self-taught kind of sign language.
- context|informal|pejorative Describing something, especially a person, that is extremely stupid.
#:You dumb oaf, you can't fix an engine by hitting it with a hammer!
- informal Describing something unintellectual.
#:Harry had the dumb, brainless job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
- figurative pointless|Pointless, or serving to create more problems than it solves.
#:This is dumb! We're just driving in circles! We ought to have asked for directions an hour ago!
Synonyms
(unable to speak): dumbstruck, mute, speechless, wordless
(extremely stupid): feeble-minded, idiotic, moronic, stupid
(unintellectual): banal, brainless, stupid, vulgar
(pointless): silly, stupid, insane, ridiculous
Translations
trans-top|unable to speak
Danish: stum, umælende
Dutch: stom,
Finnish: mykkä
French: muet m, muette f
German: stumm
Italian: muto m, muta f
trans-mid
Japanese: ������ (kuchi no kike nai)
Latin: mutus|mūtus m, muta|mūta f, mutum|mūtum n
Slovak: nemý, nehovoriaci
Spanish: mudo m
Swedish: stum
trans-bottom
trans-top|extremely stupid
Danish: dum, åndssvag
Dutch dom, stom
Finnish: typerä, idioottimainen
German: dumm, idiotisch
French: stupide, débile, idiot m, idote f
Italian: stupido
trans-mid
Japanese: ��� (oroka na)
Latin: stupidus m, stupida f, stupidum n
Kurdish: KUchar|ب�ع���ڵ
Swedish: korkad
trans-bottom
trans-top|unintellectual
Danish: dum, fordummende
Finnish: typerä
trans-mid
German: dümmlich, dumm
trans-bottom
trans-top|pointless
Danish: dum, åndssvag
Finnish: typerä
German: sinnlos
Italian: stupido
trans-mid
Japanese: ���� (mi no nai)
Kurdish: KUchar|ب����ع�ا
Latin: supervacuus m, supervacua f, supervacuum n
Swedish: meningslös
trans-bottom
Translations to be checked
checktrans
ttbc|Albanian: memec
ttbc|Bosnian: nem
ttbc|Catalan: mut
ttbc|Croatian: nijem
ttbc|Esperanto: muta
ttbc|Hungarian: néma
ttbc|Korean: ��� (deodeumda) (1), �미�� (tumi-hada) (2,3)
ttbc|Romanian: mut
ttbc|Sardinian: mudu
ttbc|Telugu: మ�� (mooga) (1)
Verb
en-verb
#To silence.
#*1911 Lindsay Swift William Lloyd Garrison p. 272
#*:The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.
#To make stupid.
#*2003 Angela Calabrese Barton Teaching Science for Social Justice p. 124
#*:"I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
#To represent as stupid.
#*2004 Stephen Oppenheimer The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa p. 107
#*:Bad-mouthing Neanderthals ... is symptomatic of a need to exclude and even demonize .... I suggest that the unproven dumbing of the Neanderthals is an example of the same cultural preconception ....
#To reduce the intellectual demands of.
#*2002 Deborah Meier In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing p. 126
#*:[T]he ensuing storm caused the department to lower the bar � amid protests that this was dumbing the test down � so that only 80 percent of urban kids would fail. ...
Derived terms
dumb law
dumb-show
dumb terminal
fa:dumb
fr:dumb
io:dumb
hu:dumb
pl:dumb
ru:dumb
fi:dumb
ta:dumb
te:dumb
vi:dumb
zh:dumb
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