silence1 nounsilence2 verb
silencesi‧lence1 /ˈsaɪləns/ ●●● W2 noun 
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- "What did you do during the war?" Rob asked. There was a deathly silence, and everyone looked down at the table.
- A voice echoed in the silence.
- After years of silence, we were talking on the phone every few weeks.
- Nothing disturbed the silence of the night.
- The school observed a minute of silence in honor of the students who had died.
- There was a long silence before anyone answered.
- And then silence again and the whole sequence begins anew.
- Enigmatically, Boon sits in silence for a while.
- He lit his cigar and we sat in silence for a long moment.
- I resented her silence too, it cut me out.
- The only sound to break the silence of the night was the soft mutter of my engine.
- Yearn to be surrounded by marble, priceless manuscripts and silence?
Longman Language Activatorwhen there is little or no noise
when there are no sounds at all: · Nothing disturbed the silence of the night.· There was a long silence before anyone answered.deathly silence (=a silence that makes people feel nervous and uncomfortable): · "What did you do during the war?" Rob asked. There was a deathly silence, and everyone looked down at the table.
a state in which there is little or no noise, especially in a place where people have all suddenly stopped talking - used especially in stories or descriptions of events: · There was a sudden hush as the musicians came onto the stage.a hush falls/descends (=people stop making noise): · Two men walked in and went up to the bar. A hush fell over the room.
words for describing people or machines that are quiet if someone or something is quiet , they make little or no noise: · I want you all to be very quiet and listen carefully.· Our new washing machine is much quieter than the old one.
written not making any sound at all: · The children remained silent and watchful as the police questioned their parents.· The engine is almost silent, even at high speed, and goes like a dream.fall silent (=stop talking): · The crowd fell silent as he stood up to speak.
if you do something or something happens without a sound , you do it or it happens with no noise at all - used especially in stories and descriptions of events: · The animal remained perfectly still, watching us without a sound.· There was a final shudder, and then the ship sank without a sound.· Each man died where he stood; they fell in their tracks without a sound.
to not make any noise at all: · Sit still, and don't make a sound.without making a sound: · She managed to get into the house without making a sound.
written if you do something in silence , you do it without speaking: · Thousands of protesters stood in silence outside the prison gates.· We drank our coffee in silence.in total/complete silence: · The two of them walked all the way to Matilda's house in complete silence.
what you say to someone to tell them to stop talking spoken say this when you want someone to stop talking: · Please be quiet for a moment.· Be quiet - I'm on the phone.· Just be quiet and let me finish the story.
spoken say this when you want a group of people, especially a group you are in charge of, to stop talking: · All right, everybody, quiet down - we're about to stop.· Quiet down! I can't hear the TV.
formal spoken used in formal situations, especially by someone in authority to tell people to be completely quiet: · Silence in court!· Silence! Will you please let the honourable Member finish what he is saying.
spoken say this to rudely tell someone to stop talking: · Just shut up and listen to me.· Hey, shut up down there! We're trying to sleep.· No one wants to listen to you - why don't you shut up and sit down.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Meanings 1 & 2adjectives
an awkward silence They sat together in companionable silence. After dinner, Kate lapsed into a glum silence. There was a long silence before anybody spoke. ‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence. a stony silence Tony stared at me in stony-faced silence. The audience sat in stunned silence. a thoughtful silence
· They sat in complete silence.· The silence in the room was absolute.
(=complete silence)· There was a gasp from Peter and then a dead silence.
· ‘He’s dead.’ There was a long silence.
· After a brief silence, Katherine nodded.
· ‘Fred tells me you like books,’ Steve said, after an awkward silence.
· There was a stunned silence at the other end of the phone.
(=unfriendly silence)· Harrison stared at him in stony silence.
· There was a brief, tense silence.
(=one that is strange and rather frightening)· An eerie silence descended over the house.
(=one that makes you feel that something bad is going to happen)· ‘How long will she be ill?’ There was a short, ominous silence.
· At the mention of John, a sudden silence fell on the room.
verbs· There was silence in the library for several moments.
(=end the silence)· The sound of a car engine broke the silence.
(=end the silence by making a sound)· Nothing moved, no sound disturbed the silence.
(=a silence begins)· A sudden silence fell over the room.
(=to stop talking and be quiet)· 'I don't want any,' he said, and lapsed into silence again.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES an awkward silence· After a brief silence, she made another suggestion.
They sat together in companionable silence. (=complete silence) A deathly hush fell over the room.
A deathly hush fell over the room.· There was an embarrassed silence, then Gina laughed loudly.
After dinner, Kate lapsed into a glum silence. There was a long silence before anybody spoke. ‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence.· There was a moment of shocked silence.
a stony silence Tony stared at me in stony-faced silence. The audience sat in stunned silence. a thoughtful silence· People close to him have finally broken their vow of silence.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· But the countryside! Absolute deafening silence.· The lights, the stillness, the absolute silence can capture the soul.· The air was delicate and there was a complete, absolute silence.· Everything seemed to conspire to an absolute stillness and silence.· As soon as he had the paper in his hand the door slammed again. Absolute silence reigned.· The woods were in absolute silence.· But there was absolute silence in the house.· There was a smell of disinfectant. Absolute silence.
· An awkward silence fell between them.· When we got to the restaurant, there was an awkward silence as I took out my tape recorder.· There was another awkward silence, broken by the laughter from the bar.· Spider said after an awkward silence.· There was an awkward silence which Maidstone might have broken with some amiable remark to save Sandison's face.· An awkward silence would do them both good.· If Jack had been at all concerned that his impulsive gesture would result in an awkward silence he need not have worried.· She figured the awkward silence was partly the result of people believing that only big topics were worthy of being discussed.
· There was a brief, tense silence.· I had to wait for a brief silence between cuts to pound on the doorframe.· There was a brief silence like an indrawn breath.
· The other three pairs came from the trees and down the sloping fields in complete silence.· The crowd was stunned, and Bachelor's Button returned to unsaddle in almost complete silence.· Once again he had gained complete silence.· The air was delicate and there was a complete, absolute silence.· They drove home in almost complete silence.· The rest of the drive home passed in almost complete silence.· The boy moved quickly, just ahead of Allen, guiding him more than walking with him, in complete silence.
· The dead silence was broken only by a regular drip, drip, drip.· There was only the sound of their own firing, then a dead silence.· In dead silence Harley surveyed his putt and Jefferson took up his usual position beside the pin.· The dead silence made contact impossible.· A dead silence greeted this unusual flow of words from Mr van der Luyden.· Then there was a dead silence.· But the question was met by dead silence.
· She knew that if she didn't speak Carla would get more and more nervous, eventually breaking the heavy silence herself.· Not a bird, not an insect, not a zephyr relieves that hot, heavy silence.· For at least two minutes a heavy silence filled the hut.· There is sun, heavy silence, a pervasive scent of parched vegetation, a lizard materialized on a rock.· A heavy silence sank down on them.· Most unwillingly they went and stood before the hero in heavy silence.
· There was a long silence, both of them sobered by the knowledge that casualties were likely.· After more hushed discussion and an even longer silence, the driver got back into the truck and started up.· There was running and shouting outside, then a long wait in silence.· There was a long silence in the room.· In the long silence that stretched between them she could almost hear her heart pounding like a sledge-hammer in her chest.· Eventually the ground seemed to stabilize and there was a long silence during which the mist curled slowly upwards.· There was a long silence as Merrill fought a desire to drop the subject which had goaded her ever since Elise died.· Click, pause, click, a long silence.
· An ominous silence.. now intervened...· There is a deep, ominous silence.· But the first few readings he had assigned had produced an ominous silence.
· The short silence encourages the audience to take notice and concentrate.· During the short silence the audience was to try to put together the images of Auschwitz and Agincourt.
· Whatever their hairstyles, serious critics mostly maintained a stony silence.· To avoid further childishness Leonora took refuge in stony, obdurate silence.· Mutinously she flicked her gaze back to where he was surveying her in stony silence.· Ned appeared to be whispering sweet nothings in her ear but his attentions were being met with a stony silence!
· They were immediately followed by a stunned silence.· A stunned silence fell over the racecourse as he lay motionless in the grass while Heraldic galloped on.· The visitor would understandably back off quickly and there would either be pandemonium or an utter, stunned silence.· In stunned silence, her eyes huge, disbelieving, she stared at him.· There was to be no stunned silence, no aghast staring and, it seemed, no dramatic response from Greg.· He stared at her for a second in stunned silence, breathing hard, his eyes dazed.· Mrs Palichuk was reduced to stunned silence for a moment.· There was a moment of stunned silence.
· At the mention of Hilary Frome a sudden silence fell over the room.· The Poole family, grouped rather self-consciously round the birthday cake on Earth, lapsed into a sudden silence.· Such a traveller may sleep soundly and awaken refreshed - that is, unless the train stops and the sudden silence wakes him.· In the sudden silence Isabel thought she could almost hear the life of the garden, preparing for its spring blossoming.· Mafouz fell heavily to earth amidst sudden, devastating silence.· In the sudden silence that followed, she realized that something was wrong.· All at once he was disturbed by a sudden silence.
· The meal was held virtually in tense silence.· So they sat in tense silence together, reading.· The scary bits created tense silence, while relieved cheers followed the good moments.· Laura and I sat in tense silence, listening to the creak of the stairs.· Inside the room, tense silence reigned.· It was a long drive from the airport, made tedious by the unnatural, tense silence in the cab.· When he sat down again there was a long, tense silence.· Everyone worked in tense silence, concentrating on their own particular task.
· He was greeted with massive and ironic cheers from the Opposition and listened to in almost total silence by our own benches.· The civilian crew of the Kora Sea observed strict social segregation, so Hicks and Gaylord played in nearly total silence.· In a nine or ten acre plot crammed full with people, there was total, blanket silence.· They eat in total silence and shuffle out again.· Just one thing dough don't buy ya in this town, fella; total silence.· There was a total silence in the house, and the room was full of moonlight.· Probably the most frequently used rejection is total silence.
VERB· The roar of a furnace engine broke the silence.· The sound of stockinged legs moving across the room finally broke the silence.· Finally Shelley felt she had to break the silence.· A footstep broke the silence and approached to within ten paces of Blackburn and waited.· It may be tempting to break the silence, but you can only do that by being more dogmatic or by compromising.· It is that shout that needs to break the silence.· A drumroll breaks the silence: loud, insistent, nerve-shattering.
· When they travelled together in a police car they had driven around in silence.· They drove in silence, back to Kalkara.· We drive on in subdued silence.· Felipe drove in silence and they were soon back - a fact that brought a slight tinge of regret to her face.· We had driven in silence and walked in silence and eaten fish in silence.
· They ate quickly and in silence.· As usual, after the first appreciative murmurs, we sat and ate our meal in silence.· They ate their toast in silence.· Resigned to bananas, Fong ate thern in silence, with chopsticks.· Jack ate in silence before returning to his position.· We ate our breakfast in silence, rolled up our blankets, and patiently waited for orders.· Agnes Resker refused to eat anything, while Mavis Pellington ate her meal in silence.· They eat in total silence and shuffle out again.
· They were immediately followed by a stunned silence.· Next he heard footsteps going up the stairs, followed by silence.· Benjamin whispered to her and I heard her hissed reply, followed by silence.· The shape it made created its own following silence, and they sat, both in the ease of it.· The shuffling stopped, followed by a long silence.· There followed the longest silence I can ever recall at a seance.· There followed a silence that Nicandra could neither interrupt nor question - they were the Grown-Ups.
· First you hear the silence and then you hear it.· For a long while she heard them in silence.· We must be silent talking with angels we must hear silence if we are to speak to it.· Have you ever heard a silence in a room at night or a great silence alone in the middle of a wood?· The listeners are trained to hear and interpret silences, sighs, sobs and so on.· Nestled beside his cooling body, she slept, until she heard silence and realized her eyes were open.· Let us hear those sounds we have heard in that silence when we have put a handkerchief to our eyes.· Jack listened, but all he heard was silence.
· He, too, has decided to keep a public silence.· But for the most part Monet kept her usual sullen silence.· Adam kept his silence and cursed his helplessness.· She, too, probably knows a lot of what went on behind Palace doors but has kept a dignified silence.· The one unshaded light bulb shone continuously down at her, and she was kept in complete silence.· Do not feel it is up to you to keep filling the silence if you have nothing more you want to say.
· As the rest of the tawdry tale emerged the Foreign Office and Downing Street lapsed into embarrassed silence.· But ultimately, words fail them and they lapse into silence.· Edward lapsed once more into strangled silence.· The Poole family, grouped rather self-consciously round the birthday cake on Earth, lapsed into a sudden silence.· He had lapsed into a frozen silence which she found more worrying than his screams.· Without my prompting, Jack often lapsed into silence.· I would talk and laugh with my companions but withdraw, lapsing into silence, when I was offered any food.· She lapsed into a deep silence which I did not try to disturb.
· Tallis, listening to the silence, realized that Wynne-Jones was whispering to Old-woman-who-sang-to-the-river.· It did little to relieve; everyone listened in silence to the words and watched Saiii Fong.· I ask the House to listen in reasonable silence for the next two minutes.· I stood in that bathroom, water off, and listened to the silence of the tile.· They sat in his room whilst the wind whistled about the eaves of the Manse, and listened to him in silence.· I let up on it, listened to the silence, then buzzed again, a little longer this time.· Lessing listened in silence and said he was staying.· I stood on that porch listening to the silence, watching the white clouds in the dark blue summer sky.
· Whatever their hairstyles, serious critics mostly maintained a stony silence.· Her chapped lips maintained a shrieking silence.· Pooley's Piaget wristwatch had now ceased its ticking for good and all and maintained a sullen rusting silence.· The new arrangement caused much criticism of the administrative board members, who maintained a discreet silence.· They hoped to maintain radio silence.· Red Cloud himself, now an old man, maintained an ambiguous silence.· On the subject of all these movements the radio maintained an obstinate silence.· Their tactics were to be to maintain a tight-lipped silence punctuated by claims that the new job was harder.
· A pin dropping in the attic would have shattered the silence.· Her loud wails shattered the silence of the willow grove.· Road-block salvo shatters Bucharest's fragile silence.· Its shrill jangle shattered the intense silence.· After a good few minutes, I shattered this silence by asking what we should do.· A dropped pin would shatter the silence in bars during televised lottery draws.
· So they sat in tense silence together, reading.· Reagan sat in silence for another moment.· Enigmatically, Boon sits in silence for a while.· They sat in silence for a while.· How he could just sit there in that silence was the hardest thing I have ever tried to figure out.· We sat in silence, peering out the window.· We sat in silence as the trap entered the estate grounds.
· They stood close together in silence, listening.· The hall is gone, and in its place only a dark ruin stands, with the silence of death about it.· The Norderns looked at Marx who stood before them as if he was quite happy to stand there in silence all day.· The world stood by in silence.· The pub stood back in silence.· If I can stand the silence Ive got it licked.· They all stood around in silence.· When Mrs Wade returned with a sack for Petey, she stood beside Lois in silence and then pointed.
· However, there is no need to continue suffering in silence.· This time we would not give in, we would take the pain and suffer in silence.· One in six women are believed to be victims of domestic violence, yet many are suffering in silence.· When this happens, the wives are ignored, left to suffer in silence.· It was more than he could bear to see the stupidity around him and just suffer it in silence.· Should Janice suffer in silence in the face of continued unfair treatment by her head?· Some of them may be men like John, forced by their male pride and their self-image to suffer in silence.· She clenched her fists, determined to suffer in silence.
· They walked a little way in silence.· We walked along in silence, the snow crunching beneath our feet.· They walked in silence while he absorbed this new twist.· One may be visiting with a fried, as Cooley imaginatively walks in the silence of the woods with Thoreau.· Agnes and the priest walked in embarrassed silence for a while.· Simon walked beside him in silence.· They walk in silence for a moment.· We walked in silence for a long time.
· Everyone was watching in silence, awaiting his verdict.· Deborah watched in silence as I pinched his fingers, his ears, even nudged the responsible organ.· They watched in silence for a time.· The girls sit and watch in silence.· Yesterday afternoon onlookers watched in silence as the mangled Land Rover was removed from the Newcastle / London line.· She watched him in self-righteous silence.· Gosse had been watching all in silence, his jaw clenched, his neck muscles taut.· We watched in silence as the first two items were dealt with.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► silence/a hush/sadness etc falls► shatter the silence/peace
- A footstep broke the silence and approached to within ten paces of Blackburn and waited.
- Finally Shelley felt she had to break the silence.
- Only the eerie tinkle of leg irons and shouted commands break the silence.
- Protestant voices now and then broke the silence.
- She would have to think of something to say in a minute to break the silence.
- The only sound to break the silence of the night was the soft mutter of my engine.
- The roar of a furnace engine broke the silence.
- The sound of stockinged legs moving across the room finally broke the silence.
- There has been a conspiracy of silence about violations of regulations.
- Curiously enough the Dunrossness District Plan avoids mentioning these negative aspects, so was there a conspiracy of silence here?
- Should you be acting as the peacemaker in your family, or the one who breaks the conspiracy of silence?
- Sometimes children need to break the conspiracy of silence.
- The conspiracy of silence about teenage sexuality had many results.
- The overall effect is precisely the same as if there were an organised conspiracy of silence among churchmen.
- The whole thing sometimes appears such an enigma that there might almost have been a conspiracy of silence.
- Then, there is the conspiracy of silence which is part of the legacy of Northern Ireland.
- There is a conspiracy of silence about what is happening, says Christina Hardyment That's entertainment.
- Activists criticized the state's deafening silence on the issue of immigration.
- All that remained on the barren expanse was a deafening silence.
- But while those hotspots are continuously monitored by diplomats and the media, the Chechen misery prompts nothing but a deafening silence.
- Once again the answer was a deafening silence.
- The most extraordinary feature of the Opposition's response has been the deafening silence of their principal spokesman in relation to the proposals.
- We submitted a carefully considered response at the end of June, since when there has been a deafening silence. 3.
- A heavy silence fell upon the room.
- A heavy silence sank down on them.
- For at least two minutes a heavy silence filled the hut.
- He has a ready supply, and despite the heavy atmosphere and flat light it carries us out to Langdale.
- Most unwillingly they went and stood before the hero in heavy silence.
- Not a bird, not an insect, not a zephyr relieves that hot, heavy silence.
- She knew that if she didn't speak Carla would get more and more nervous, eventually breaking the heavy silence herself.
- There is sun, heavy silence, a pervasive scent of parched vegetation, a lizard materialized on a rock.
- But ultimately, words fail them and they lapse into silence.
- I would talk and laugh with my companions but withdraw, lapsing into silence, when I was offered any food.
- Soon after that she would lapse into sleep, then unconsciousness, then a state of deep coma.
- Without my prompting, Jack often lapsed into silence.
- The problem with his lofty sentiments and pregnant pauses was that they were completely eclipsed by his reputation.
- There was a long silence - what I think might be called a pregnant pause.
- At mealtimes, Kornemann would rail at his wife in front of the boys, reducing her to tears.
- He has in his grasp the ability to reduce anyone to tears, through a snappy headline or lurid story.
- Initially, it was the existential absurdity of his predicament that reduced Sooty to silence.
- It becomes the subject of innumerable short stories and songs, of films that reduce their audiences to tears.
- Outside in her car she kept a tight grip on herself, refusing to let her humiliation reduce her to tears.
- She would come home in tears and reduce my wife to tears.
- They might stop me having visitors if they think I reduce them to tears.
- Amy told no one else except her younger brother Howard, and she swore him to secrecy.
- He swore his family to secrecy and tried to continue living a normal life, making regular stage appearances and several movies.
- Jett swore me to secrecy, with particular reference to you.
- Lois had sworn her to secrecy.
- No, surely he would swear her to secrecy - if he really did agree in the end to Miguel's request.
- She swore him to secrecy and asked him to build the barrel.
- They swore one another to secrecy.
- This time I had taken the precaution of tipping off the organizers in advance and swearing them to silence.
- He had apparently recovered from his visit to Johanna, hiding his feelings behind the usual veil of secrecy.
- Justice can not prevail under a veil of secrecy or behind doors that do not open.
- The client has thrown a veil of secrecy over the development, with contractors reluctant to discuss the project.
- A wall of silence has now descended over the key players.
- Blount met with a convenient wall of silence.
- But the wall of silence that protected behind the scenes negotiations produced no answers.
- Only Jim Crane, ambitious but a little more human than the other hacks, can break Alice's wall of silence.
- Other cracks in the wall of secrecy have appeared in recent years, as we shall see in Chapter 5.
- Very soon a cold stone wall of silence had tormented them to wounded exasperation.
WORD FAMILYnounsilencesilenceradjectivesilentverbsilenceadverbsilently
1no noise [uncountable] complete absence of sound or noise SYN quietsilence of Nothing disturbed the silence of the night.silence falls/descends (on/upon something) After the explosion, an eerie silence fell upon the scene.break/shatter the silence A loud scream shattered the silence.2no talking [countable, uncountable] complete quiet because nobody is talking: There was a brief silence before anyone answered.in silence The four men sat in silence.complete/total/dead silence ‘How long have you been here?’ I asked. There was complete silence. ‘Silence in court!’ roared the judge.embarrassed/awkward/stunned etc silence There was an awkward silence between them. The accused exercised his right to silence (=the legal right to choose to say nothing).3no discussion/answer [uncountable] failure or refusal to discuss something or answer questions about somethingsilence on The government’s silence on such an important issue seems very strange. Once again the answer was a deafening silence (=a very noticeable refusal to discuss something).4no communication [uncountable] failure to write a letter to someone, telephone them etc: After two years of silence, he suddenly got in touch with us again.5one-minute/two-minute etc silence a period of time in which everyone stops talking as a sign of honour and respect towards someone who has diedCOLLOCATIONS– Meanings 1 & 2adjectivescomplete/total/absolute/utter silence· They sat in complete silence.· The silence in the room was absolute.dead silence (=complete silence)· There was a gasp from Peter and then a dead silence.a long silence· ‘He’s dead.’ There was a long silence.a short/brief silence· After a brief silence, Katherine nodded.an awkward/uncomfortable/embarrassed silence· ‘Fred tells me you like books,’ Steve said, after an awkward silence.a stunned/shocked silence· There was a stunned silence at the other end of the phone.stony silence (=unfriendly silence)· Harrison stared at him in stony silence.a tense silence· There was a brief, tense silence.an eerie silence (=one that is strange and rather frightening)· An eerie silence descended over the house.an ominous silence (=one that makes you feel that something bad is going to happen)· ‘How long will she be ill?’ There was a short, ominous silence.a sudden silence· At the mention of John, a sudden silence fell on the room.verbsthere is (a) silence· There was silence in the library for several moments.break/shatter the silence (=end the silence)· The sound of a car engine broke the silence.disturb the silence (=end the silence by making a sound)· Nothing moved, no sound disturbed the silence.silence falls/descends (=a silence begins)· A sudden silence fell over the room.lapse into silence (=to stop talking and be quiet)· 'I don't want any,' he said, and lapsed into silence again.silence1 nounsilence2 verb
silencesilence2 ●○○ verb [transitive] VERB TABLE
silence
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | silence |
| he, she, it | silences | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | silenced |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have silenced |
| he, she, it | has silenced | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had silenced |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will silence |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have silenced |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am silencing |
| he, she, it | is silencing | |
| you, we, they | are silencing | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was silencing |
| you, we, they | were silencing | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been silencing |
| he, she, it | has been silencing | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been silencing |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be silencing |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been silencing |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Angry residents are suing the church to silence the bell at night.
- At last, Switzer had a chance to silence his critics.
- I opened my mouth to speak but she silenced me with an angry look.
- Opponents of the regime are quickly silenced.
- Partick was livid, but Jane squeezed his arm to silence him.
- Police used violence and threats to silence the party's political opponents.
- The Mafia uses threats of physical violence or death to silence any opposition.
- Fong said nothing; he had started to object but was silenced by more abuse.
- Reformists allege that the killings were part of a campaign by state-sponsored death squads to silence dissent.
- The article silenced Diem, who had immediately surmised its source, but it did not sway Taylor.
- Then he became angry, and threatened that he would silence me for ever, if I would not agree.
Longman Language Activatorto make someone or something quieter
British /quiet somebody down American to make someone quieter and calmer, when they are making a lot of noise because they are angry, excited, or upset: · I spent half the lesson trying to quieten them down.· Sue managed to quiet them both down and eventually stopped the argument.
especially written to make someone suddenly stop speaking: · I opened my mouth to speak but she silenced me with an angry look.· Partick was livid, but Jane squeezed his arm to silence him.
to make someone, especially a child, make less noise or make no noise at all, especially by telling them in a quiet voice to stop talking or crying: · I turned to Margaret but was hushed before I could open my mouth.· David hushed me. "Sh-h-h. You're not allowed to speak in here.''· She gave up trying to hush the baby and took him outside.
if something muffles a sound it makes it quieter and less clear: · The snow muffled the sound of the traffic.· He dragged her into the car, putting his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams.· John's voice was muffled by the door, and I couldn't tell what he was saying.
to make a television, radio etc quieter by moving or turning a button or control: turn something/it/them down: · Do you mind turning the radio down?· Turn that music down, you'll wake the whole street!turn down something: · She turned down the volume on the TV and picked up the phone.turn something right downBritish /turn something all the way down American (=make it as quiet as possible): · No wonder you can't hear anything -- you've turned your hearing aid right down.
informal to make someone be quiet, especially by speaking to them rudely or angrily: · Can't you shut those kids up?· The only way to shut her up is to give her something to eat.
to stop people from expressing their opinions to prevent someone from expressing their opinions or telling people something that you want kept secret: · The Mafia uses threats of physical violence or death to silence any opposition.· Opponents of the regime are quickly silenced.
to prevent someone such as a politician or news reporter from publicly expressing their opinions, information, or ideas: · Democracy activists have been effectively muzzled by these tough new laws.muzzle the press/media: · Attempts to muzzle the country's media have failed.
to use your authority unfairly to prevent someone from telling people something or expressing their opinions - used especially in newspapers: · The government has once again used concerns about "National Security' as an excuse to gag the press.· The prime minister has been accused of attempting to gag members of his government who do not agree with his policies.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES an awkward silence They sat together in companionable silence. After dinner, Kate lapsed into a glum silence. There was a long silence before anybody spoke. ‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence. a stony silence Tony stared at me in stony-faced silence. The audience sat in stunned silence. a thoughtful silence
an awkward silence· After a brief silence, she made another suggestion.
They sat together in companionable silence. (=complete silence) A deathly hush fell over the room.
A deathly hush fell over the room.· There was an embarrassed silence, then Gina laughed loudly.
After dinner, Kate lapsed into a glum silence. There was a long silence before anybody spoke. ‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence.· There was a moment of shocked silence.
a stony silence Tony stared at me in stony-faced silence. The audience sat in stunned silence. a thoughtful silence· People close to him have finally broken their vow of silence.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN· Youths fired an arrow through the window of one house and set light to another in an attempt to silence them.· More important, an attempt by legislators to silence both prosecutors and judges defeats the spirit of co-equal branches of government.
· Kylie's voice - backed up by a sophisticated set of taped effects in case of emergency - had silenced many of her critics.· This is because balding has helped women humble and silence our male critics.
· Buxton, perhaps despite himself, grew anxious not to alienate Tory support, even if that meant silencing more liberal voices.· The threat of imperialist attack remains, and the bureaucracy uses this threat quite consciously to periodically silence the voices of opposition.· Rationality equals oppression and the silencing of marginalized voices!
VERB· Initially, it was the existential absurdity of his predicament that reduced Sooty to silence.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► silence/a hush/sadness etc falls► shatter the silence/peace
- A footstep broke the silence and approached to within ten paces of Blackburn and waited.
- Finally Shelley felt she had to break the silence.
- Only the eerie tinkle of leg irons and shouted commands break the silence.
- Protestant voices now and then broke the silence.
- She would have to think of something to say in a minute to break the silence.
- The only sound to break the silence of the night was the soft mutter of my engine.
- The roar of a furnace engine broke the silence.
- The sound of stockinged legs moving across the room finally broke the silence.
- There has been a conspiracy of silence about violations of regulations.
- Curiously enough the Dunrossness District Plan avoids mentioning these negative aspects, so was there a conspiracy of silence here?
- Should you be acting as the peacemaker in your family, or the one who breaks the conspiracy of silence?
- Sometimes children need to break the conspiracy of silence.
- The conspiracy of silence about teenage sexuality had many results.
- The overall effect is precisely the same as if there were an organised conspiracy of silence among churchmen.
- The whole thing sometimes appears such an enigma that there might almost have been a conspiracy of silence.
- Then, there is the conspiracy of silence which is part of the legacy of Northern Ireland.
- There is a conspiracy of silence about what is happening, says Christina Hardyment That's entertainment.
- Activists criticized the state's deafening silence on the issue of immigration.
- All that remained on the barren expanse was a deafening silence.
- But while those hotspots are continuously monitored by diplomats and the media, the Chechen misery prompts nothing but a deafening silence.
- Once again the answer was a deafening silence.
- The most extraordinary feature of the Opposition's response has been the deafening silence of their principal spokesman in relation to the proposals.
- We submitted a carefully considered response at the end of June, since when there has been a deafening silence. 3.
- A heavy silence fell upon the room.
- A heavy silence sank down on them.
- For at least two minutes a heavy silence filled the hut.
- He has a ready supply, and despite the heavy atmosphere and flat light it carries us out to Langdale.
- Most unwillingly they went and stood before the hero in heavy silence.
- Not a bird, not an insect, not a zephyr relieves that hot, heavy silence.
- She knew that if she didn't speak Carla would get more and more nervous, eventually breaking the heavy silence herself.
- There is sun, heavy silence, a pervasive scent of parched vegetation, a lizard materialized on a rock.
- But ultimately, words fail them and they lapse into silence.
- I would talk and laugh with my companions but withdraw, lapsing into silence, when I was offered any food.
- Soon after that she would lapse into sleep, then unconsciousness, then a state of deep coma.
- Without my prompting, Jack often lapsed into silence.
- The problem with his lofty sentiments and pregnant pauses was that they were completely eclipsed by his reputation.
- There was a long silence - what I think might be called a pregnant pause.
- At mealtimes, Kornemann would rail at his wife in front of the boys, reducing her to tears.
- He has in his grasp the ability to reduce anyone to tears, through a snappy headline or lurid story.
- Initially, it was the existential absurdity of his predicament that reduced Sooty to silence.
- It becomes the subject of innumerable short stories and songs, of films that reduce their audiences to tears.
- Outside in her car she kept a tight grip on herself, refusing to let her humiliation reduce her to tears.
- She would come home in tears and reduce my wife to tears.
- They might stop me having visitors if they think I reduce them to tears.
- Amy told no one else except her younger brother Howard, and she swore him to secrecy.
- He swore his family to secrecy and tried to continue living a normal life, making regular stage appearances and several movies.
- Jett swore me to secrecy, with particular reference to you.
- Lois had sworn her to secrecy.
- No, surely he would swear her to secrecy - if he really did agree in the end to Miguel's request.
- She swore him to secrecy and asked him to build the barrel.
- They swore one another to secrecy.
- This time I had taken the precaution of tipping off the organizers in advance and swearing them to silence.
- He had apparently recovered from his visit to Johanna, hiding his feelings behind the usual veil of secrecy.
- Justice can not prevail under a veil of secrecy or behind doors that do not open.
- The client has thrown a veil of secrecy over the development, with contractors reluctant to discuss the project.
- A wall of silence has now descended over the key players.
- Blount met with a convenient wall of silence.
- But the wall of silence that protected behind the scenes negotiations produced no answers.
- Only Jim Crane, ambitious but a little more human than the other hacks, can break Alice's wall of silence.
- Other cracks in the wall of secrecy have appeared in recent years, as we shall see in Chapter 5.
- Very soon a cold stone wall of silence had tormented them to wounded exasperation.
WORD FAMILYnounsilencesilenceradjectivesilentverbsilenceadverbsilently
1to make someone stop talking, or stop something making a noise: She held up her hand to silence the children.2to make someone stop expressing opposition or criticisms – used especially in news reports: attempts to silence the rumours Barnes has failed to silence his critics.