The Collaborative International Dictionary
dumbbell \dumb"bell`\, dumb-bell \dumb"-bell`\, n. An exercising weight, consisting of two spheres or spheroids, connected by a short bar for a handle; used (often in pairs) for gymnastic exercise.
2. an ignorant or foolish person.
Syn: dummy, dope, boob, booby, pinhead.
Usage examples of "dumb-bell".
A portable casette player boomed out its music over the clicking of dumb-bells.
They was a decrepit punching bag, a horizontal bar and a lot of bar-bells, dumb-bells, kettle bells--in fact, all the lifting weights you couldst imagine.
This test was taken with four successive dumb-bells of decreasing weight, viz.
Northern Nursery sends out its hordes, and gawky hoydens and hobbletehoys are getting themselves accomplished in the foreign languages, music, drawing, geography, the use of the globes, and the dumb-bells.
It was far too unwieldy for most men, even for the burly men who rode the big horses and trained with dumb-bells to give strength to their sword arms, but Sharpe liked the sword and was strong enough to make it into a responsive and murderous weapon.