'Dumb show' definitions:

Definition of 'dumb show'

From: WordNet
noun
A performance using gestures and body movements without words [syn: mime, pantomime, dumb show]

Definition of 'Dumb show'

From: GCIDE
  • Dumb \Dumb\, a. [AS. dumb; akin to D. dom stupid, dumb, Sw. dumb, Goth. dumbs; cf. Gr. ? blind. See Deaf, and cf. Dummy.]
  • 1. Destitute of the power of speech; unable; to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes. [1913 Webster]
  • To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. [1913 Webster]
  • This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • To pierce into the dumb past. -- J. C. Shairp. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Lacking brightness or clearness, as a color. [R.] [1913 Webster]
  • Her stern was painted of a dumb white or dun color. --De Foe. [1913 Webster]
  • Deaf and dumb. See Deaf-mute.
  • Dumb ague, or Dumb chill, a form of intermittent fever which has no well-defined "chill." [U.S.]
  • Dumb animal, any animal except man; -- usually restricted to a domestic quadruped; -- so called in contradistinction to man, who is a "speaking animal."
  • Dumb cake, a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's eve, with certain mystic ceremonies, to discover their future husbands. --Halliwell.
  • Dumb cane (Bot.), a west Indian plant of the Arum family (Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech.
  • Dumb crambo. See under crambo.
  • Dumb show. (a) Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown in pantomime. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise." --Shak. (b) Signs and gestures without words; as, to tell a story in dumb show.
  • To strike dumb, to confound; to astonish; to render silent by astonishment; or, it may be, to deprive of the power of speech.
  • Syn: Silent; speechless; noiseless. See Mute. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'dumb show'

From: Moby Thesaurus