Muteness

[myoot] /myut/

adjective, muter, mutest.
1.
silent; refraining from speech or utterance.
2.
not emitting or having sound of any kind.
3.
incapable of speech; dumb.
4.
(of letters) silent; not pronounced.
5.
Law. (of a person who has been arraigned) making no plea or giving an irrelevant response when arraigned, or refusing to stand trial (used chiefly in the phrase to stand mute).
6.
Fox Hunting. (of a hound) hunting a line without giving tongue or cry.
noun
7.
Offensive. a person incapable of speech.
8.
an actor whose part is confined to dumb show.
9.
Law. a person who stands mute when arraigned.
10.
Also called sordino. a mechanical device of various shapes and materials for muffling the tone of a musical instrument.
11.
Phonetics. a stop.
12.
British Obsolete. a hired mourner at a funeral; a professional mourner.
verb (used with object), muted, muting.
13.
to deaden or muffle the sound of.
14.
to reduce the intensity of (a color) by the addition of another color.
/mjuːt/
adjective
1.
not giving out sound or speech; silent
2.
unable to speak; dumb
3.
unspoken or unexpressed: mute dislike
4.
(law) (of a person arraigned on indictment) refusing to answer a charge
5.
(phonetics) another word for plosive
6.
(of a letter in a word) silent
noun
7.
a person who is unable to speak
8.
(law) a person who refuses to plead when arraigned on indictment for an offence
9.
any of various devices used to soften the tone of stringed or brass instruments
10.
(phonetics) a plosive consonant; stop
11.
a silent letter
12.
an actor in a dumb show
13.
a hired mourner at a funeral
verb (transitive)
14.
to reduce the volume of (a musical instrument) by means of a mute, soft pedal, etc
15.
to subdue the strength of (a colour, tone, lighting, etc)
/mjuːt/
verb
1.
(of birds) to discharge (faeces)
noun
2.
birds’ faeces
n.

1580s, from mute (adj.) + -ness.
adj.

late 14c., mewet “silent,” from Old French muet “dumb, mute” (12c.), diminutive of mut, mo, from Latin mutus “silent, speechless, dumb,” probably from imitative base *meue- (cf. Sanskrit mukah “dumb,” Greek myein “to be shut,” of the mouth). Form assimilated in 16c. to Latin mutus.
v.

“deaden the sound of,” 1861, from mute (n.). Related: Muted; muting.
n.

1570s, “stage actor in a dumb show;” 1610s as “person who does not speak,” from mute (adj.). Musical sense first recorded 1811 of stringed instruments, 1841, of horns.

mute (myōōt)
adj.
Unable or unwilling to speak. n.
One who does not have the faculty of speech. No longer in technical use, considered offensive.