Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dumb \Dumb\, a. [AS. dumb; akin to D. dom stupid, dumb, Sw. dumb, Goth. dumbs; cf. Gr. ? blind. See Deaf, and cf. Dummy.]
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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. -
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.
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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.
Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown in pantomime. ``Inexplicable dumb shows and noise.''
--Shak.-
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.
Wiktionary
alt. (context theater English) A performance during which the players do not speak. n. (context theater English) A performance during which the players do not speak.
WordNet
Usage examples of "dumb show".
Thus far the entire story is told in dumb show, heightened by musical effects, until the day of his dramatic sexually charged encounter with the ravishing young woman glimpsed in the opening scene and even more so now, on horseback, where he is out hunting.
A ceremony followed, in dumb show, in which it was easy to recognise the pantomime of a marriage.
She never heard anything through the flames, only saw shapes and people as they moved and spoke in a kind of dumb show.
Something was going on, some kind of dumb show which, not rendering me wholly stupefied, held me spellbound.
He didn't do any dumb show to indicate the Lizards thereabouts were far away, either.