Dumb vs Still - What's the difference?
dumb | still | Related terms |
(label) Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.
* Hooker
(label) Silent; unaccompanied by words.
* Shakespeare
*
* J. C. Shairp
extremely stupid.
(label) Pointless, foolish, lacking intellectual content or value.
Lacking brightness or clearness, as a colour.
* De Foe
To silence.
* 1911 , Lindsay Swift, William Lloyd Garrison , p. 272,
To make stupid.
* 2003 , Angela Calabrese Barton, Teaching Science for Social Justice , p. 124,
To represent as stupid.
* 2004 , Stephen Oppenheimer, The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa , p. 107,
To reduce the intellectual demands of.
* 2002 , Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing , p. 126,
Not moving; calm.
Not effervescing; not sparkling.
Uttering no sound; silent.
* Addison
(not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
* {{quote-news, 2007, January 3, Gerry Geronimo, Unwanted weed starts to sprout from a wayward ponencia, Manila Standard
, passage=To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion. }}
Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
* Bible, 1 Kings xix. 12
(obsolete) Constant; continual.
* Shakespeare
(aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
* Francis Bacon
* , chapter=15
, title= *
* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
(degree) To an even greater degree.
* Shakespeare
(conjunctive) Nevertheless.
* Moore
(archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
* 1609 (William Shakespeare), Troilus and Cressida 5.2.201-202:
* Addison
* Boyle
(extensive) .
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= A period of calm or silence.
(photography) A non-moving photograph. (The term is generally used only when it is necessary to distinguish from movies.)
(slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
A steep hill or ascent.
a device for distilling liquids.
(catering) a large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
(catering) the area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.
to calm down, to quiet
* Woodward
* Shakespeare
* Hawthorne
(obsolete) To trickle, drip.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ii:
To cause to fall by drops.
To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.
Still is a synonym of dumb.
As adjectives the difference between dumb and still
is that dumb is unable to speak; lacking power of speech while still is not moving; calm.As verbs the difference between dumb and still
is that dumb is to silence while still is to calm down, to quiet.As an adverb still is
up to a time, as in the preceding time.As a noun still is
a period of calm or silence.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)- to unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures
- dumb show
- This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
- to pierce into the dumb past
- You are so dumb ! You don't even know how to make toast!
- 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.
- 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, vulgarDerived terms
* dumb as a box of rocks * dumben * dumbhood * dummy * dumbnessEtymology 2
From (etyl) dumbien, from (etyl) dumbian (more commonly in compound .Verb
(en verb)- The paralysis of the Northern conscience, the dumbing of the Northern voice, were coming to an end.
- I think she's dumbing us down, so we won't be smarter than her.
- 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.
- 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 dumbstill
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Related to (l).Alternative forms
* (l) * (l), (l), (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(en-adj)- Still waters run deep.
- still''' water; '''still wines
- The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still .
citation
- a still small voice
- By still practice learn to know thy meaning.
Synonyms
* (not moving) fixed, stationary, unmoving * See alsoDerived terms
* stillnessAdverb
(-)- It hath been anciently reported, and is still received.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
- Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
citation, passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.}}
- ("still" and "taller" can easily swap places here)
- The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.
- As sunshine, broken in the rill, / Though turned astray, is sunshine still .
- Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.
- The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private.
- Chemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little.
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
Synonyms
* (up to a time) yet * (to an even greater degree) yet, even * (nevertheless) nonetheless, though, yetNoun
(en noun)- the still of the night
Etymology 2
Via (etyl), ultimately from (etyl) stillaNoun
(en noun) (wikipedia still)See also
* pot stillEtymology 3
(etyl) stillanVerb
(en verb)- to still the raging sea
- He having a full sway over the water, had power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it.
- With his name the mothers still their babies.
- toil that would, at least, have stilled an unquiet impulse in me
Etymology 4
Aphetic form of distil, or from (etyl) (lena) stillare.Verb
(en verb)- any drop of slombring rest / Did chaunce to still into her wearie spright [...].
- (Tusser)
