Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Dumb show   /dəm ʃoʊ/   Listen
adjective
Dumb  adj.  
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."
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." "To pierce into the dumb past."
3.
Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. (R.) "Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color."
4.
Lacking intelligence; having poor judgment; stupid; dull-witted; of persons.
5.
Exhibiting poor judgment or lack of wisdom; leading predictably to unfavorable consequences; of actions.
Deaf and dumb. See Deaf-mute.
Dumb ague, or Dumb chill, a form of intermittent fever which has no well-defined "chill." (U.S.)
Dumb animal, any animal except man; usually restricted to a domestic quadruped; so called in contradistinction to man, who is a "speaking animal."
Dumb cake, a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's eve, with certain mystic ceremonies, to discover their future husbands.
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. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise."
(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.
Synonyms: Silent; speechless; noiseless. See Mute.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Dumb show" Quotes from Famous Books



... tale to report. A Masque, armed cap- a-pie, as described by the guard, had visited each of their cells in succession; had instructed them by signs to dress, and then, pointing to the door, by a series of directions all communicated in the same dumb show, had assembled them together, thrown open the prison door, and, pointing to their college, had motioned them thither. This motion they had seen no cause to disobey, presuming their dismissal to be according to the mode which best pleased his highness; and not ill- pleased at finding ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey
... adopt the reading here produced, will be, when 'those who are incapable of receiving such things as do not directly fall under and strike the senses,' have, at last, got hold of it; when 'the groundlings, who, for the most part are capable of nothing but dumb show and noise,' have had their ears split with it, it will ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... waked from a doze by a very deferential 'I beg your pardon, sir,' and a sudden tweak, which abstracted a silver thread from his head; and Mab showed somewhat greater displeasure at a similar act of plunder upon her white chemisette. But the spying was followed by a sigh; and, in dumb show, Ethel was made to perceive that the Vintry hair had more affinity with the canine than the human. As to the scrapings of the window, nothing but vegetable fibre could there be detected; but on the stile, there was undoubtedly a mark containing human ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge
... with a significant smile, as much as to say, "Yes, you may really eat it." For, in the excitement of carrying out her deed, she had forgotten her previous thought that the stranger would not be deaf, and had fallen into her habitual alternative of dumb show and shouting. ...
— Romola • George Eliot
... this: You are slightly obstructed in your perambulations on a fine afternoon by a small knot of loiterers pausing before a shop window in which an active young man of admirably mobile countenance is holding forth in dumb show. Your progress is slackened as you edge about the throng with the intention of proceeding on your way. As it were, you poise on the wing. Then, like a warming liquor stealing through the veins, the awakening of your interest in ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com