obmutescence definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (2)

A keeping silence; loss of speech; dumbness. But a vehement fear naturally produceth obmutescence; and sometimes irrecoverable silence. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iii. 8. The obmutescence, the gloom, and mortification of religious orders. Paley, Evidences, ii. 2.

Therefore, I was manna in the desert of Jud's obmutescence. — Heart of the West [Annotated]
Place Christianity, in this respect, by the side of all institutions which have been founded in the fanaticism either of their author or of his first followers: or, rather, compare in this respect Christianity, as it came from Christ, with the same religion after it fell into other hands -- with the extravagant merit very soon ascribed to celibacy, solitude, voluntary poverty; with the rigours of an ascetic, and the vows of a monastic life; the hair-shirt, the watchings, the midnight prayers, the obmutescence, the gloom and mortification of religious orders, and of those who aspired to religious perfection. — Evidence of Christianity