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Webster's 1913 Dictionary

DUMB-BELL

DUMB-BELL Dumb "-bell `, n.

Defn: A weight, consisting of two spheres or spheroids, connected by a short bar for a handle; used (often in pairs ) for gymnastic exercise.

Oxford Dictionary

dumb-bell

dumb-bell ▶noun 1 a short bar with a weight at each end, used typically in pairs for exercise or muscle-building. • [ as modifier ] shaped like a dumb-bell: a dumb-bell molecule. 2 N. Amer. informal a stupid person. ORIGIN early 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 ’.