noun
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gymnastics weightlifting an exercising weight consisting of a single bar with a heavy ball or disc at either end
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a small wooden object shaped like this used in dog training for the dog to retrieve
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slang a fool
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dumbbell
Explanation
A dumbbell is a type of weight you might see at a gym. You typically lift a dumbbell with one hand — unless it's too heavy and you accidentally drop it on your foot. Ouch! The short, handheld exercise weights are known as dumbbells, while the larger weights that require two hands for lifting are barbells. If you're new to weightlifting, you might want to start doing bicep curls with light dumbbells. The name comes from the bar once used to ring a church bell: dumbbells resemble these ringers, although they're dumb, or "silent." Dumbbell is also used in a derogatory way to mean "stupid person."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I got a more alarming “bleep” during dumbbell thrusters: “Go deeper so your thighs are closer to parallel.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 4, 2026
The sessions included deadlifts, dumbbell bench presses, lateral bounds, resistance band drills, sprints and hurdles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2025
"The dumbbell thus acts a bit like the needle on a compass, allowing us to read off the z coordinate according to its orientation," says Prof. Dr. Dieter Meschede.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 5, 2024
He was injured returning a dumbbell to its rack in Toronto’s weight room.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 28, 2023
I could tell he was in a deep sleep because his full weight squashed into my intestines like a five-hundred-pound dumbbell.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Their forms match the aerodynamic shapes typical of tektites, including spheres, ellipsoids, droplets, disks, dumbbells, and twisted shapes.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 1, 2026
It could involve kettle bells, dumbbells, walking lunges, pull ups, squatting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
The men's facility featured rows of workout platforms, outfitted with dumbbells, barbells and weights capable of going into the hundreds of pounds.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2024
A bright painted mural on one wall announced Freedom Home; another, next to a heavy punching bag and some dumbbells, commemorated actress Betty White, who campaigned for animal welfare.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2024
Before that the gym here had been an old, dingy room, with a handful of mismatched dumbbells and decaying equipment that looked like it was made about a year after the wheel had been invented.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
