dumb
//dʌm//
Forms
- Comparative
- dumber
- Superlative
- dumbest
- present (v1)
- dumb
- past (v2)
- dumbed
- past participle (v3)
- dumbed
- present participle
- dumbing
- 3rd person singular
- dumbs
Definitions
1.Stupid.(informal)
- You are so dumb! You don't even know how to make toast!
2.Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
- Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
- This is dumb! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!
3.Lacking some functionality or property ordinarily characteristic of its kind.
4.Not equipped with intelligent behavior or processing capabilities of its own.
1.To make stupid.
- I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
2.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.
3.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.
1.Very, extremely.
- "What, you don't like your food?" Russo asks. ¶ "Are you kidding? It's dumb good."
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3320
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, ineffectual”), from Old English dumb (“silent, speechless, mute, unable to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *dumb, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dull, dumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).