dumbly

comparative more dumbly · superlative most dumbly

1. In a silent way.

   I handed it dumbly to my friend, who had the grace to giggle.

   1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 32

   2 more examples

   On the flat behind the mill, dawn-rising Chinamen shogged with nimble bare feet under their yoke-linked watering-cans. These busy brethren, meeting sometimes on the same narrow track, would pause, ant-like, seemingly to dumbly regard one another and their burdens, then, still ant-like, pass silently to their work.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 147

   We both stared at it dumbly, wondering why she had done such a thing, when suddenly something remarkable began to happen.

   1991, Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe, page 156

   Synonyms: silently

2. derogatoryinformalIn an unsmart way.