How to Use dumb in a Sentence

dumb

1 of 2 adjective

• It was a dumb idea in the first place.
• He was born deaf and dumb.
• He just stood there with a dumb grin on his face.
• It was dumb luck that we found this place at all.
• I'm not dumb enough to believe that.
• His success is just a matter of dumb luck.
• This is one of the dumbest TV shows I've ever seen.
• That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball.
  — Dylan Owens, The Know, 3 Apr. 2017
• Bryan, who is way too old to be on this show, speaks in Spanish, which is dumb because Rachel speaks English.
  — Abby Draper, baltimoresun.com, 23 May 2017
• This appointment looks like the height of dumb cronyism from pretty much all angles.
  — Richard Lawson, Vanities, 16 June 2017
• Growing up in Cleveland, Cohn was severely dyslexic, which at the time just meant dumb.
  — Jessica Pressler, Daily Intelligencer, 11 June 2017
• This isn’t as simple as saying this player or that one was dumb for getting arrested on a DUI charge.
  — Geoff Baker, The Seattle Times, 30 Apr. 2017
• Right-wing media is so eager to run with Griffin’s dumb stunt because it can be used to paint the entire resistance.
  — Alex Shephard, New Republic, 31 May 2017
• Tuco Saladonka Harambe Thank you for reading this dumb list.
  — Zach Buchanan, Cincinnati.com, 29 June 2017
• This take is so dumb that it was held back in the second grade three times.
  — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 21 Jan. 2026
• Okay, there's trying something new and then there's just being dumb.
  — Samantha Highfill, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Jan. 2026
• Why portray Dorothy as a doe-eyed ding-a-ling; as not just naive but dumb?
  — Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair, 12 Jan. 2026
• Read on to slog through the dumb stuff until that jaw-dropping ending.
  — William Earl, Variety, 11 Jan. 2026
• Unless the bookshelf has no backing and can be flipped around, putting them in backwards is, indeed, dumb.
  — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 9 Jan. 2026

dumb

2 of 2 verb

• Winston had to dumb it down to a few dozen basic sentences.
  — Andy Rosen, BostonGlobe.com, 2 June 2018
• Many thought Ross wanted girls to pretend to like things to get a guy to crush on them, or even dumb themselves down so guys can feel like teachers.
  — Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen, 6 Nov. 2018
• The filmmakers wanted all of the satire, but dumbed it down enough to appeal to a mass audience in the cutthroat summer blockbuster season.
  — cleveland.com, 15 Feb. 2018
• One concern has been whether doctors might have to dumb down their notes for patients, or whether patients might get too distressed by reading what their doctors say about them.
  — Laura Landro, WSJ, 28 Feb. 2017
• And are cultural institutions in danger of dumbing down in an effort to draw crowds?
  — Clive Martin, CNN, 12 May 2017
• Even before 2016, some critics accused the GOP of self-consciously dumbing itself down.
  — Charles J. Sykes, Time, 5 Oct. 2017
• The strats worried about being dumbed down, employees say, while the I.T. engineers worried about being marginalized.
  — Nathaniel Popper, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2016
• Is the technology dumbing things down, pandering to the selfie generation, and preventing visitors from being in the moment?
  — Julia Buckley, Condé Nast Traveler, 12 Dec. 2017
• One former Pompeo aide attributed the success to Pompeo's keen ability to distill complex issues and convey them clearly and directly, without dumbing them down.
  — Jeremy Diamond, CNN, 14 Mar. 2018