MUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mute mean? 

• MUTE (noun)
  The noun MUTE has 2 senses:

1. a deaf person who is unable to speak

2. a device used to soften the tone of a musical instrument

  Familiarity information: MUTE used as a noun is rare.

• MUTE (adjective)
  The adjective MUTE has 2 senses:

1. expressed without speech

2. unable to speak because of hereditary deafness

  Familiarity information: MUTE used as an adjective is rare.

• MUTE (verb)
  The verb MUTE has 1 sense:

1. deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping

  Familiarity information: MUTE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MUTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A deaf person who is unable to speak

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

deaf-and-dumb person; deaf-mute; mute

Hypernyms ("mute" is a kind of...):

deaf person (a person with a severe auditory impairment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mute"):

dummy; silent person (a person who does not talk)

Derivation:

mute (unable to speak because of hereditary deafness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A device used to soften the tone of a musical instrument

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("mute" is a kind of...):

acoustic device (a device for amplifying or transmitting sound)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mute"):

sordino; sourdine (a mute for a violin)

Derivation:

mute (deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping)

• MUTE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Expressed without speech

Synonyms:

mute; tongueless; unspoken; wordless

Context example:

choking exasperation and wordless shame

Similar:

inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)

Derivation:

muteness (a refusal to speak when expected)

muteness (the condition of being unable or unwilling to speak)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unable to speak because of hereditary deafness

Synonyms:

dumb; mute; silent

Similar:

inarticulate; unarticulate (without or deprived of the use of speech or words)

Derivation:

mute (a deaf person who is unable to speak)

muteness (the condition of being unable or unwilling to speak)

• MUTE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mute    ... he / she / it mutes   
Past simple: muted   
Past participle: muted   
-ing form: muting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deaden (a sound or noise), especially by wrapping

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

damp; dampen; dull; muffle; mute; tone down

Hypernyms (to "mute" is one way to...):

soften (make (images or sounds) soft or softer)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

mute (a device used to soften the tone of a musical instrument)

 Context examples 

John Knightley only was in mute astonishment.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He put me off his knee, rose, and reverently lifting his hat from his brow, and bending his sightless eyes to the earth, he stood in mute devotion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was as mute and senseless as the box, from which his form derived the only expression it had.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Their glance fell upon Alleyne, and he could not withstand the mute appeal which he read in them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then his eyes would turn to Jo so wistfully that she would have surely answered the mute inquiry if she had seen it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She longed to bid me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Clinical signs include asymmetric paresthesia of the face, trunk and proximal extremities followed by lancinating pain, vibrioceptive and proprioceptive impairment, and muted reflexes.

(Paraneoplastic Subacute Sensory Neuronopathy, NCI Thesaurus)

He was dressed in rusty black, with a very broad-brimmed top-hat and a loose white necktie—the whole effect being that of a very rustic parson or of an undertaker’s mute.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He raised his hands over his head in a sort of mute despair, and then beat his palms together in a helpless way; finally he sat down on a chair, and putting his hands before his face, began to sob, with loud, dry sobs that seemed to come from the very racking of his heart.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was in such a storm, and the worst that we had experienced, that I cast a weary glance to leeward, not in quest of anything, but more from the weariness of facing the elemental strife, and in mute appeal, almost, to the wrathful powers to cease and let us be.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)