mutes

Noun

mute (plural mutes)

1. (obsolete) A stopped consonant; a stop.

   Synonyms:

   occlusive, plosive, stop

2. (obsolete) An actor who does not speak; a mime performer.
   • As for the poor honest Maid, whom all the Story is built upon, and who ought to be one of the principal Actors in the Play, she is commonly a Mute in it:1668 OF Dramatick Poesie, AN ESSAY. By JOHN DRYDEN Esq; (John Dryden)
3. A person who does not have the power of speech.
   • The girl left, and presently returned, followed by two male mutes, to whom the Queen made another sign.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
4. A hired mourner at a funeral; an undertaker's assistant.
   • He asked about the undertaking business, and how many mutes went down with Lady Estrich’s remains […]1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter IX, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 95
5. An object for dulling the sound of an instrument, especially a brass instrument, or damper for pianoforte; a sordine.
6. An electronic switch or control that mutes the sound.
   • Another related primary control is called a mute, which is simply a switch that kills the signal altogether, allowing for a speedier turn-off than turning the fader all the way down rapidly. Mutes are probably more commonly used during multitrack music recording than during film mixing because in...2012, Tomlinson Holman, Sound for Film and Television, page 174

See all 18 meanings of mute