dumb

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking the power of human speech

   dumb animals

2. 2
   adj

   temporarily incapable of speaking

   struck dumb

3. 3
   adj

   Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.

   deaf, dumb, and blind

4. 4
   adj

   Having no input or voice in running things.

   Life was never a May-game for men; in all times the lot of the dumb-millions born to toil was defaced with manifold sufferings, injustices, heavy burdens, avoidable and unavoidable; not play at all, but hard work that made the sinews sore, and the heart sore.

5. 5
   adj

   Unaccompanied by words or speech, silent, wordless.

   dumb show

6. 6
   adj

   Not producing any sound, silent.

   […] Thro’ lands where not a leaf was dumb; ⁠But all the lavish hills would hum The murmur of a happy Pan: […]

7. 7
   adj

   Stupid.

   You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!

8. 8
   adj

   Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.

   This is dumb! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!

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. Cognat…