Mute Definition
myo͝ot
muted, mutes, mutest, muting
adjective
mutest
Refraining from producing speech or vocal sound.
American Heritage Medicine
Not speaking; voluntarily silent.
Webster's New World
Unable to speak.
Webster's New World
Unable to vocalize, as certain animals.
American Heritage Medicine
Not spoken.
A mute appeal.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
noun
mutes
One who is incapable of speech.
American Heritage Medicine
A person who does not speak; specif., one who, deaf from infancy, has not learned to speak.
Webster's New World
A defendant who declines to enter a plea to a criminal charge.
American Heritage
A hired mourner at a funeral.
Webster's New World
A setting, control, device, etc., as on a TV receiver or telephone, that may be used to silence the audio temporarily.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
- deaf-mute
- deaf-and-dumb-person
verb
muted, mutes, muting
To soften or muffle the sound of (a musical instrument, etc.) as with a mute.
Webster's New World
To subdue the intensity of (a color)
Webster's New World
To silence, to make quiet.
Wiktionary
To turn off the sound of.
Please mute the music while I make a call.
Wiktionary
(now rare) Of a bird: to defecate. [from 15th c.]
Wiktionary
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
idiom
stand mute
- to refuse to plead guilty or not guilty
Webster's New World
Other Word Forms of Mute
Noun
Singular:
mute
Plural:
mutesAdjective
Base Form:
mute
Superlative:
mutestIdioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Mute
- stand mute
Origin of Mute
-
From Anglo-Norman muet, moet, Middle French muet, from mu (“dumb, mute") + -et, remodelled after Latin mÅ«tus.
From Wiktionary
Middle English muet from Old French from diminutive of mu from Latin mūtus
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
-
From Middle French muetir, probably a shortened form of esmeutir, ultimately from Proto-Germanic.
From Wiktionary
-
Latin mutare (“to change").
From Wiktionary
Mute Is Also Mentioned In
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