undumb

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From un- +‎ dumb.

Adjective

[edit]

undumb (not comparable) (rare superlative undumbest)

  1. Not dumb (in various senses).
    • 1926, P. C. Wren, Beau Sabreur: By Percival Christopher Wren, page 298:
      Then I did a miracle on myself and came undumb.
    • 1995, Joseph Grigely, Textualterity: Art, Theory, and Textual Criticism, University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 126:
      This is a perfect phrase, a phrase that unveils the irony of Cézanne's unlong and undumb paintings — each, we might assume, with its own unfixed idea of velocity.
    • 1996, Vita Sackville-West, edited by Peter Washington, Love Letters, Everyman's Library, →ISBN, page 66:
      You, with all your undumb letters, would never write so elementary a phrase; perhaps you wouldn't even feel it.
    • 2014 October 7, Faith Hunter, Broken Soul, Penguin, →ISBN:
      “If there are no undumb questions, meeting adjourned.”

Verb

[edit]

undumb (third-person singular simple present undumbs, present participle undumbing, simple past and past participle undumbed)

  1. to make no longer dumb.
    • 1989 January 1, Michael Lombardo, Robert Eichinger, Preventing Derailment: What To Do Before It's Too Late, Center for Creative Leadership, →ISBN, page 12:
      One of her earlier bosses said of her: “She gives people a chance to undumb themselves—she asks lots of questions, gives careful feedback, delegates complete tasks with careful instructions.
    • 2010 May 11, Ben Wattenberg, Values Matter Most: How Republicans, or Democrats, or a Third Party Can Win and Renew the American Way of Life, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 93:
      Almost everyone knows we have dumbed down our schools and have to undumb them.
    • 2020 April 7, Richard Grossinger, Bottoming Out the Universe: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
      The wave is quantum entanglement, Multipersonhood, over determination, and even that doesn't begin to undumb what's going on.