mute

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Refraining from producing speech or vocal sound.
• adjective Offensive Unable to speak.
• adjective Unable to vocalize, as certain animals.
• adjective Expressed without speech; unspoken.
• adjective Law Declining to enter a plea to a criminal charge.
• adjective Not pronounced; silent, as the e in the word house.
• adjective Pronounced with a temporary stoppage of breath, as the sounds (p) and (b); plosive; stopped.
• noun Offensive One who is incapable of speech.
• noun Law A defendant who declines to enter a plea to a criminal charge.
• noun Music Any of various devices used to muffle or soften the tone of an instrument.
• noun A silent letter.
• noun A plosive; a stop.
• transitive verb To soften or muffle the sound of.
• transitive verb To soften the tone, color, shade, or hue of.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To change the feathers; mew; molt, as a bird.
• To shed; molt, as feathers.
• noun A mew for hawks.
• noun A pack of hounds.
• noun The cry of hounds.
• To pass excrement: said of birds.
• To void, as dung: said of birds.
• In music, to deaden or muffle the sound of, as an instrument. See mute, n., 3.
• To check fermentation in. See mutage.
• noun The dung of fowls.
• In numismatics, destitute of legend or means of identification beyond those furnished by heraldic or other symbolic devices.
• noun See the quotation.
• Silent; not speaking; not uttering words.
• Incapable of utterance; not having the power of speech; dumb; hence, done, made, etc., without speech or sound.
• In grammar and philology:
• Silent; not pronounced: as, the b in dumb is mute.
• Involving a complete closure of the mouth-organs in, utterance: said of certain alphabetic sounds: see II., 2.
• In mineralogy, applied to metals which do not ring when struck.
• In entomology, not emitting audible sounds: opposed to sonant, stridulating, shrilling, etc.: said of insects.
• Showing no sign; devoid; destitute.
• Synonyms and Dumb, etc. See silent.
• noun A person who is speechless or silent; one who does not speak, from physical inability, unwillingness, forbearance, obligation. etc.
• noun In some Eastern countries, a dumb porter or doorkeeper, usually one who has been deprived of speech.
• noun In theaters, one whose part is confined to dumb-show; also, a spectator; a looker-on.
• noun In law, a person who makes no response when arraigned and called on to plead or answer.
• noun In grammar and philology, an alphabetic utterance involving a complete closure of the mouth-organs; a. check; a stop; an explosive.
• noun In music:
• noun In stringed musical instruments of the viol family, a clip or weight of brass, wood, or ivory that can be slipped over the bridge so as to deaden the resonance without touching the strings; a sordino.
• noun In metal wind-instruments, a pear-shaped leathern pad which can be inserted into the bell to check the emission of the tone.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To cast off; to molt.
• verb To eject the contents of the bowels; -- said of birds.
• noun The dung of birds.
• adjective Not speaking; uttering no sound; silent.