mute
/mjut/ noun C2- A person who does not have the power of speech.
- A hired mourner at a funeral; an undertaker's assistant.
- An object for dulling the sound of an instrument, especially a brass instrument, or damper for pianoforte; a sordine.
- An electronic switch or control that mutes the sound.
- A mute swan.
- An action of muting, especially in a discussion forum as a penalty for breaking rules.
Plural mutes
From the library
Marilla looked at Anne and softened at sight of the child’s pale face with its look of mute misery--the misery of a helpless little creature who finds itself once more caught in the trap from which it had escaped.
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.
‘But I have seen more than that,’ said he, ‘for Hugo Baskerville passed me upon his black mare, and there ran mute behind him such a hound of hell as God forbid should ever be at my heels.’ So the drunken squires cursed the shepherd and rode onward.
Sometimes she stood mute and motionless as a statue, looking towards Marseilles, at other times gazing on the sea, and debating as to whether it were not better to cast herself into the abyss of the ocean, and thus end her woes.
Other matches
Learn mute in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.