資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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.
To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures.
--Hooker.
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. --Shak.
To pierce into the dumb past. -- J. C.
Shairp.
3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.]
Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color.
--De Foe.
{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}.
Crambo \Cram"bo\ (-b[-o]), n. [Cf. {Cramp}, a., difficult.]
1. A game in which one person gives a word, to which another
finds a rhyme.
I saw in one corner . . . a cluster of men and
women, diverting themselves with a game at crambo. I
heard several double rhymes . . . which raised a
great deal of mirth. --Addison.
2. A word rhyming with another word.
His similes in order set And every crambo he could
get. --Swift.
{Dumb crambo}, a game in which one party of players give a
word which rhymes with another, which last to be guessed
by the opposing party, who represent in dumb show what
they think it to be.