bedumb

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ dumb. Compare Middle English adumbien, from Old English ādumbian (“to become mute or dumb, keep silence, hold one’s peace”).

Verb

bedumb (third-person singular simple present bedumbs, present participle bedumbing, simple past and past participle bedumbed)

1. (transitive) To make or render dumb, or mute.
   • 1901, Herbert Trench, Deirdre wed and other poems - Page 39:

     These make no rustle save Some pine-cone dropt, or murmur that condemns Murmur; bedumb'd with moss that giant nave.

   • 1902, Frederick Strange Kolle, Pen lyrics - Page 11:

     Let not the melancholy past / Bedumb your hardened ears; [...]

   • 1964, John Holloway, The lion hunt: a pursuit of poetry and reality - Page 18:

     Our disease is not smugness, but the anxiety that bedumbs the singer.