Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Mute   /mjut/   Listen
adjective
Mute  adj.  
1.
Not speaking; uttering no sound; silent. "All the heavenly choir stood mute, And silence was in heaven." Note: In law a prisoner is said to stand mute, when, upon being arranged, he makes no answer, or does not plead directly, or will not put himself on trial.
2.
Incapable of speaking; dumb.
3.
Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; said of certain letters. See 5th Mute, 2.
4.
Not giving a ringing sound when struck; said of a metal.
Mute swan (Zool.), a European wild white swan (Cygnus olor syn. Cygnus gibbus), which produces no loud notes, in distinction from the Trumpeter swan.
Synonyms: Silent; dumb; speechless. Mute, Silent, Dumb. One is silent who does not speak; one is dumb who can not, for want of the proper organs; as, a dumb beast, etc.; and hence, figuratively, we speak of a person as struck dumb with astonishment, etc. One is mute who is held back from speaking by some special cause; as, he was mute through fear; mute astonishment, etc. Such is the case with most of those who never speak from childhood; they are not ordinarily dumb, but mute because they are deaf, and therefore never learn to talk; and hence their more appropriate name is deaf-mutes. "They spake not a word; But, like dumb statues, or breathing stones, Gazed each on other." "All sat mute, Pondering the danger with deep thoughts."


noun
Mute  n.  The dung of birds.


Mute  n.  
1.
One who does not speak, whether from physical inability, unwillingness, or other cause. Specifically:
(a)
One who, from deafness, either congenital or from early life, is unable to use articulate language; a deaf-mute.
(b)
A person employed by undertakers at a funeral.
(c)
A person whose part in a play does not require him to speak.
(d)
Among the Turks, an officer or attendant who is selected for his place because he can not speak.
2.
(Phon.) A letter which represents no sound; a silent letter; also, a close articulation; an element of speech formed by a position of the mouth organs which stops the passage of the breath; as, p, b, d, k, t.
3.
(Mus.) A little utensil made of brass, ivory, or other material, so formed that it can be fixed in an erect position on the bridge of a violin, or similar instrument, in order to deaden or soften the tone.


verb
Mute  v. t. & v. i.  To eject the contents of the bowels; said of birds.


Mute  v. t.  To cast off; to molt. "Have I muted all my feathers?"





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Mute" Quotes from Famous Books



... and the court, the garden and the stream, then, turning inside, the modern surveys the work of the ancient, the remnants of time. And no less curious and no less remote do the old tapestries seem than the atelier where the high looms rear their cylinders and mute men play their colour harmonies on the warp. It all seems of other times; it all seems dead. And it ...
— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee
... same. [Sidenote: Fierce and bold people.] At the length two of them leauing their weapons, came downe to our Generall and Master, who did the like to them, commanding the company to stay, and went vnto them: who after certaine dumbe signes, and mute congratulations, began to lay handes vpon them, but they deliuerly escaped, and ranne to their bowes and arrowes, and came fiercely vpon them, (not respecting the rest of our companie which were readie for their defence,) but with ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt
... thither resort, With familiar friends to play, and[213] pass the time in sport; For the deputy, constable and spiteful neighbours do spy, pry, and eye about my house, That I dare not be once merry within, but still mute like ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley
... was careless of anything but the exact image. Such readers it was apparently not his fate to find in sufficient numbers to bring him fame. He was, in a sense, a modern before his time, but without sufficient consciousness of his modernity to fight. He was a mute, inglorious Robert Frost—like Frost for one year a Harvard student, like him retiring to the New England countryside, like him intent chiefly on rendering the commonplace beauty of that countryside into something magical because so true. ...
— Penguin Persons & Peppermints • Walter Prichard Eaton
... descent there seems scarcely room for doubt, and "Pile," or "Pyle" and "Pall Mall" stand as mute testimony. And "York" too is a ...
— Sergeant York And His People • Sam Cowan


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com