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What is the difference between dumb and dummy?

dumb | dummy |

Dummy is a derived term of dumb.

Dummy is a related term of dumb.



As verbs the difference between dumb and dummy

is that dumb is to silence while dummy is to make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality.

As an adjective dumb

is unable to speak; lacking power of speech.

As a noun dummy is

a silent person; a person who does not talk.

dumb

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) dumb, from (etyl) . In ordinary spoken English, a phrase like "He is dumb" is interpreted as "He is stupid" rather than "He lacks the power of speech". The latter example, however, is the original sense of the word. The senses of stupid'', ''unintellectual'', and ''pointless developed under the influence of the (etyl) word dumm.

Adjective

(er)
  • (label) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
  • * Hooker
    • to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures
  • (label) Silent; unaccompanied by words.
    • dumb show
  • * Shakespeare
    • This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
  • *
  • * J. C. Shairp
    • to pierce into the dumb past
  • extremely stupid.
    • You are so dumb ! You don't even know how to make toast!
  • (label) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
    • This is dumb ! We're driving in circles! We should have asked for directions an hour ago!
    Brendan had the dumb job of moving boxes from one conveyor belt to another.
  • Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.
  • * De Foe
    • Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color.
    Synonyms
    * (unable to speak) dumbstruck, mute, speechless, wordless * (stupid) feeble-minded, idiotic, moronic, stupid * banal, brainless, dopey, silly, stupid, ridiculous, vulgar
    Derived terms
    * dumb as a box of rocks * dumben * dumbhood * dummy * dumbness

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) dumbien, from (etyl) dumbian (more commonly in compound .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To silence.
  • * 1911 , Lindsay Swift, William Lloyd Garrison , p. 272,
    • The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.
  • To make stupid.
  • * 2003 , Angela Calabrese Barton, Teaching Science for Social Justice , p. 124,
    • I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
  • To represent as stupid.
  • * 2004 , Stephen Oppenheimer, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa , p. 107,
    • 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.
  • To reduce the intellectual demands of.
  • * 2002 , Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing , p. 126,
    • 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.
    Derived terms
    * dumbness * dumb blonde * dumb down * dumbocracy * dumb-show * dumb terminal * dummy * play dumb

    dummy

    English

    Noun

    (dummies)
  • A silent person; a person who does not talk.
  • An unintelligent person.
    • Don't be such a dummy !
  • A figure of a person or animal used by a ventriloquist; a puppet.
  • Something constructed with the size and form of a human, to be used in place of a person.
    • To understand the effects of the accident, we dropped a dummy from the rooftop.
  • A deliberately nonfunctional device or tool used in place of a functional one.
    • The hammer and drill in the display are dummies .
  • (AU, UK, NZ) A "dummy teat"; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby; a pacifier.
    • The baby wants her dummy .
  • * 2006 , Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: A Parents? Guide Towards Happy, Sleeping Babies from Birth to Two Years , MacMillan 2009, page 200,
    • Then on the fifth day, at the first sleep of the day, remove the dummy' and follow my settling guide for your baby?s age. You should throw all her ' dummies in the bin to ensure you are not tempted to use them again – even outside sleep times.
  • * 2008 , Bern, Bern's Fairy Tales , page 15,
    • No Fairy baby has ever been seen to suck its thumb or to use a dummy .
  • * 2011 , Simone Cave, Caroline Fertleman, Baby to Toddler Month by Month , page 85,
    • We?ve found that going cold turkey works best – you check that your baby isn't ill or teething, then throw all dummies' away. When your baby cries for her ' dummy , you can look her in the eye and say, ‘It?s gone,’ and really mean it.
  • (card games, chiefly, bridge) A player whose hand is shown and is to be played from by another player.
  • (UK) A bodily gesture meant to fool an opposing player in sport; a feint.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 12 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Liverpool 2 - 1 Liverpool , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Raul Meireles was the victim of the home side's hustling on this occasion giving the ball away to the impressive David Vaughan who slipped in Taylor-Fletcher. The striker sold Daniel Agger with the best dummy of the night before placing his shot past keeper Pepe Reina.}}
  • (linguistics) A word serving only to make a construction grammatical.
    • The pronoun "it" in "It's a mystery why this happened" is a dummy .
  • (programming) An unused parameter or value.
    • If flag1 is false, the other parameters are dummies .

    Synonyms

    * (a thing in the form of a person) mannequin, marionette * (plastic teat) pacifier (US), soother (Canada)

    Derived terms

    * dummy bid * dummy bidder

    Related terms

    * dumb

    See also

    * dud * fake * feint

    External links

    * http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002594.php

    Verb

  • To make a mock-up or prototype version of something, without some or all off its intended functionality.
    • The carpenters dummied some props for the rehearsals.
  • To feint
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=February 1 , author=Mandeep Sanghera , title=Man Utd 3 - 1 Aston Villa , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The more glamorous qualities usually associated with him are skill and pace and he used those to race on to a ball across him and dummy a defender before having a right-foot shot saved. }}
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=January 15 , author=Kevin Darling , title=West Ham 0 - 3 Arsenal , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=For the first, the 30-year-old allowed Walcott space on the right to send in a pass that was expertly dummied by Samir Nasri, allowing Van Persie to swivel and smash right-footed past Robert Green. }}

    Derived terms

    * dummy out * dummy up