the dumb ox
Preserved but no longer current.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), so named by his fellow students at Cologne, on account of his dullness and taciturnity. Alber- tus said: "We call him the dumb ox, but he will give one day such a bellow as shall be heard from one end of the world to the other.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “the dumb ox” mean?
St. Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), so named by his fellow students at Cologne, on account of his dullness and taciturnity. Alber- tus said: "We call him the dumb ox, but he will give one day such a bellow as shall be heard from one end of the world to the other.
Is “the dumb ox” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.