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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


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"Dumb show" Quotes from Famous Books



... have perished in the Jackson Hole country, from starvation and exposure. The ranchmen of that region have had terrible times,—in witnessing the sufferings of thousands of elk tamed by hunger, and begging in piteous dumb show for the small and all-too-few haystacks ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday
... In the dumb show murder play, before the King and Queen Shakspere puts these phrases in the mouths of ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce
... and in a place where no eaves-dropper could overhear their discourse without detection, than the stranger stopped. He appeared to examine the person, stature, and dress of Jacopo, from beneath his mask, with singular caution, closing the whole with a sign that meant recognition. Jacopo returned his dumb show, ...
— The Bravo • J. Fenimore Cooper
... type, figure, emblem, cipher, device; representation &c. 554; epigraph, motto, posy. gesture, gesticulation; pantomime; wink, glance, leer; nod, shrug, beck; touch, nudge; dactylology[obs3], dactylonomy[obs3]; freemasonry, telegraphy, chirology[Med], byplay, dumb show; cue; hint &c. 527; clue, clew, key, scent. signal, signal post; rocket, blue light; watch fire, watch tower; telegraph, semaphore, flagstaff; cresset[obs3], fiery cross; calumet; heliograph; guidon; headlight. [sign (evidence) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... first nightof 'Myra'—the yells, howls, whistles, cat-calls which made the whole three acts a pantomime in dumb show. ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray


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