dumb
verb
- to make silent: deaden
adjective
- not showing or having good judgment or intelligence : stupid or foolish
- lacking the human power of speech
- temporarily unable to speak (as from shock or astonishment)
- not expressed in uttered words
- silent
- taciturn
- lacking some usual attribute or accompaniment
- not having the capability to process data
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /dʌm/ / /ɖəm(b)/
adj
Etymology: A minced oath of damn.
- An intensifier expressing contempt; damn, damned.
“Pap came to stand beside her and watched the two play. "That pup has just plum' fell in love with our Sammy, an' Sam's real took by him," Pap said. "It's a dumb shame, too. I talked to Jim, but he's not of a mind to sell."”
adv
Etymology: A minced oath of damn.
- Very, extremely.
“"What, you don't like your food?" Russo asks. ¶ "Are you kidding? It's dumb good."”
“Yo this shit is crazy how these females are making these doctors rich. My baby moms Miracle is getting surgery in a week or so. She's flying out to Colombia. That shit really baffles me as far as she's concerned, because Miracle is already dumb thick. I'm like damn ma, how big do you want your ass to be?”
noun
- Alternative form of D.U.M.B. (deep underground military base)
verb
Etymology: From Middle English dumben, from Old English *dumbian (found in the compound ādumbian (“to become mute or dumb; keep silence; hold one’s peace”)), from Proto-Germanic *dumbijaną, *dumbōną (“to be silent, become dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”). Cognate with German verdummen (“to become dumb”).
- To silence.
“[…] what I would have spoke Was beastly dumbed by him.”
“The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.”
- To make stupid.
“I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.”
- To represent as stupid.
“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.
“The 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.”