mute

Meanings

Adjective

• Not having the power of speech; dumb.
• Silent; not making a sound.
• Not uttered; unpronounced; silent; also, produced by complete closure of the mouth organs which interrupt the passage of breath; said of certain letters.
• Not giving a ringing sound when struck; said of a metal.

Noun

• A stopped consonant; a stop.
• An actor who does not speak; a mime performer.
• 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.
• The faeces of a hawk or falcon.

Verb

• To silence, to make quiet.
• To turn off the sound of.
• Of a bird: to defecate.
• To cast off; to moult.

Origin

• From Middle English muet, from Anglo-Norman muet, moet, Middle French muet, from mu + -et, remodelled after Latin mūtus.
• From Middle French muetir, probably a shortened form of esmeutir, ultimately from Proto-Germanic.
• From Latin mutare.