- Dumb cake
- 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.
[1913 Webster]
To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
2. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. [1913 Webster]
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
To pierce into the dumb past. -- J. C. Shairp. [1913 Webster]
3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.] [1913 Webster]
Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color. --De Foe. [1913 Webster]
{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. --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. ``Inexplicable dumb shows and noise.'' --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}. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.