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De - Pt| English Dictionary: dumb show | by the DICT Development Group |
| 2 results for dumb show | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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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 [bd]chill.[b8] [U.S.] {Dumb animal}, any animal except man; -- usually restricted to a domestic quadruped; -- so called in contradistinction to man, who is a [bd]speaking animal.[b8] {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. [bd]Inexplicable dumb shows and noise.[b8] --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}. | |
