Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DUMB, a. [dum; Sax. dumb; Goth. dumbs, dumba; G. dumm; D. dom; Sw. dumm, or dumbe; Dan. dum; Heb. Ch. דום, to be silent; Ar. دَامَ dauma, to continue or be permanent, to appease, to quiet. Class Dm, No. 3. In this word, b improperly added.]

1. Mute; silent; not speaking. I was dumb with silence; I held my peace. – Ps. xxxix.
2. Destitute of the power of speech; unable to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes. The asylum, at Hartford, in Connecticut, was the first institution in America for teaching the deaf and dumb to read and write.
3. Mute; not using or accompanied with speech; as, a dumb show; dumb signs. To strike dumb, is to confound; to astonish; to render silent by astonishment; or it may be, to deprive of the power of speech.