dumb-bell
noun /ˈdʌm bel/
/ˈdʌm bel/
- enlarge imagea short bar with a weight at each end, used for making the arm and shoulder muscles stronger
- (North American English, informal) a stupid person
Word Originearly 18th cent.: originally denoting an apparatus similar to that used to ring a church bell (but without the bell, so noiseless or “dumb”); sense (2) (dating from the 1920s) is an extended use by association with dumb ‘stupid’.