| 释义 |
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2024dumb /dʌm/USA pronunciation adj., -er, -est. - lacking intelligence or good judgment;
stupid;
dull-witted:He was dumb to try a stunt like that. - stupid;
silly;
useless:What a dumb idea! - lacking the power of speech (often considered offensive when applied to humans):a dumb animal.
- temporarily unable to speak:We were all dumb with astonishment at his outrageous comments.
- refraining from any or much speech;
silent:I kept dumb. - made, experienced, etc., without speech:in a dumb, furious rage.
- Computinglacking electronic processing power of its own:a dumb computer terminal.
dumb•ly, adv. dumb•ness, n. [uncountable] WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2024dumb (dum),USA pronunciation adj., -er, -est, v. - lacking intelligence or good judgment;
stupid;
dull-witted. - lacking the power of speech (often offensive when applied to humans):a dumb animal.
- temporarily unable to speak:dumb with astonishment.
- refraining from any or much speech;
silent. - made, done, etc., without speech.
- lacking some usual property, characteristic, etc.
- Show Businessperformed in pantomime;
mimed. - Computingpertaining to the inability to do processing locally:A dumb terminal can input, output, and display data, but cannot process it.Cf. intelligent (def. 4).
- [Naut.]
- Naval Terms(of a barge) without means of propulsion.
- Naval Terms(of any craft) without means of propulsion, steering, or signaling.
v. - dumb down, to revise to appeal or be understandable to less intelligent people;
lower the intellectual content of:to dumb down a textbook; the dumbing down of American movies.
- bef. 1000; Old English; cognate with Old Norse dumbr, Gothic dumbs, Old Saxon dumb, Old High German tump, German dumm
- 2, 3.See corresponding entry in Unabridged Dumb, mute, speechless, voiceless describe a condition in which speech is absent. Dumb was formerly used to refer to persons unable to speak; it is now used almost entirely of the inability of animals to speak:dumb beasts of the field.The term mute is applied to persons who, usually because of congenital deafness, have never learned to talk:With training most mutes learn to speak well enough to be understood.Either of the foregoing terms or speechless may describe a temporary inability to speak, caused by emotion, etc.:dumb with amazement; mute with terror; left speechless by surprise.Voiceless means literally having no voice, either from natural causes or from injury:Turtles are voiceless. A laryngectomy leaves a person voiceless until he or she has learned esophageal speech.
dumb, + v. - dumb down, to revise to appeal or be understandable to less intelligent persons;
lower the intellectual content of:to dumb down a textbook; the dumbing down of American movies.
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