MUTE

I. adjective (~r; ~st) Etymology: Middle English muet, mut, from Anglo-French, from mu, ~, from Latin mutus, probably from mu, representation of a muttered sound Date: 1513 unable to speak ; lacking the power of speech, characterized by absence of speech: as, felt or experienced but not expressed , refusing to plead directly or stand trial , remaining silent, undiscovered, or unrecognized, 4. contributing nothing to the pronunciation of a word , contributing to the pronunciation of a word but not representing the nucleus of a syllable , ~ly adverb ~ness noun II. noun Date: 1530 stop 9, a person who cannot or does not speak, a device attached to or inserted into a musical instrument to soften or alter its tone, III. transitive verb (~d; muting) Date: 1883 to muffle, reduce, or eliminate the sound of, to tone down ; soften , subdue , IV. intransitive verb (~d; muting) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French *meutir, short for ameutir, alteration of Old French esmeltir, of Germanic origin; akin to Middle Dutch smelten to melt, make fluid, defecate (of birds) Date: 15th century to evacuate the cloaca