Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The condition or quality of being or keeping still and silent.
- noun The absence of sound; stillness.
- noun A period of time without speech or noise.
- noun Refusal or failure to speak out.
- intransitive verb To make silent or bring to silence.
- intransitive verb To curtail the expression of; suppress.
- intransitive verb Genetics To interfere with the expression of (a gene or gene segment) so that its biological function is suppressed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cause to be or keep silent; put or bring to silence; restrain from speech or noise; stop the noise of: as, to
silence a battery or a gun-boat. - To restrain from speech about something; cause or induce to be silent on a particular subject or class of subjects; make silent or speechless, as by restraint of privilege or license, or by unanswerable argument.
- Hence To make quiescent; put at rest or into abeyance; stop the activity of: as, to
silence one's conscience. - noun The state of being or keeping silent; forbearance or restraint of sound; abstinence from speech or other noise; muteness; reticence: as, to listen in silence; the chairman rapped for silence.
- noun Absence of sound or noise; general stillness within the range or the power of hearing: as, the silence of midnight; the silence of the tomb.
- noun Absence of mention: as, the silence of Scripture (on a particular subject); oblivion; obscurity.
- noun In distilled spirits, want of flavor and odor; flatness; deadness. See
silent spirit , under silent. - noun In music, same as rest, 8.
- noun Synonyms See
silent .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being silent; entire absence of sound or noise; absolute stillness.
- noun Forbearance from, or absence of, speech; taciturnity; muteness.
- noun Secrecy.
- noun The cessation of rage, agitation, or tumilt; calmness; quiest.
- noun Absence of mention; oblivion.
- interjection Be silent; -- used elliptically for
let there be silence , orkeep silence . - transitive verb To compel to silence; to cause to be still; to still; to hush.
- transitive verb To put to rest; to quiet.
- transitive verb To restrain from the exercise of any function, privilege of instruction, or the like, especially from the act of preaching.
- transitive verb To cause to cease firing, as by a vigorous cannonade.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The lack of any
sound . - noun Form of meditative
worship practiced by the Society of Friends (Quakers ); meeting for worship. - noun The action of refraining from speaking.
- verb transitive To make (someone or something)
silent . - verb transitive To
suppress criticism , etc. - verb To
block gene expression . - interjection be quiet
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cause to be quiet or not talk
- noun the state of being silent (as when no one is speaking)
- noun the trait of keeping things secret
- noun a refusal to speak when expected
- noun the absence of sound
- verb keep from expression, for example by threats or pressure
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Now, of these four modes of misleading others by the tongue, when there is a _justa causa_ (supposing there can be such) -- a material lie, that is an untruth which is not a lie, an equivocation, an evasion, and silence, -- First, I have no difficulty whatever in recognizing as allowable the method of _silence_.
Apologia pro Vita Sua John Henry Newman 1845
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“The most likely outcome of this silence is a raise,” Chapman writes.
Negotiate Your Salary More Effectively | Lifehacker Australia 2009
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To this day, when a glass drops, she's reflexively brought back to what she describes as a "silence of death all around."
Shira Hirschman Weiss: How One Survivor Of Terrorism Is Giving Back Shira Hirschman Weiss 2011
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To this day, when a glass drops, she's reflexively brought back to what she describes as a "silence of death all around."
Shira Hirschman Weiss: How One Survivor Of Terrorism Is Giving Back Shira Hirschman Weiss 2011
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You have to look at yourself naked in silence, which is why television, radio, and any other distractions are so popular with society.
June 2009 2009
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To this day, when a glass drops, she's reflexively brought back to what she describes as a "silence of death all around."
Shira Hirschman Weiss: How One Survivor Of Terrorism Is Giving Back Shira Hirschman Weiss 2011
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To this day, when a glass drops, she's reflexively brought back to what she describes as a "silence of death all around."
Shira Hirschman Weiss: How One Survivor Of Terrorism Is Giving Back Shira Hirschman Weiss 2011
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Whatever the cause might be of the diffidence Mr. Harris sees in the approach of scientists to issues of value and morality, their silence is the sine qua non of arguments like his.
What Unitarians Know (and Sam Harris Doesn't) Marilynne Robinson 2010
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I think their silence is an example of good old Canadian patriotism.
Allright, I’m Sensing A Theme Here… « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008
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Margaret's goal was always to get away from the crowds and experience what she referred to as the silence of the woods.
Archive 2009-10-01 Kiki 2009
bilby commented on the word silence
"'There are two types of silence,' said Kasper, 'or at least that's how it has sounded to me. There is the high silence, the silence behind prayer. The silence when one is close to the Divine. The silence that is the dense, unborn presence of all sounds. And then there is the other silence. Hopelessly far from God. And from other people. The silence of absence. The silence of loneliness.'
He felt the young man's openness. There was contact. Interference. They were close to each other.
'I know them,' said Franz Fieber. 'The two kinds of silence. I know them both.'
'Those two people I sat across from, they were acoustically dead,' said Kasper. 'Something had gone out of them.'"
- 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg.
March 19, 2008
bilby commented on the word silence
"When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
When I pronounce the word Nothing,
I make something no non-being can hold."
- Wislawa Szymborska, 'The Three Oddest Words', translated by S. Baranczak & C. Cavanagh.
June 13, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word silence
It reminds me a beautiful book "iRead", The seventh son by Orson Scott Card. The boy has a gift for creating, but there is something (hard to define) against him, that they call the Unmaker.
Look, I'm talking about books!
June 13, 2008
seanahan commented on the word silence
"Am I afraid of silence? I wouldn't ask, except I never seem to allow it. I watch tv, listen to music, radio, podcasts, if I'm with friends talk to them, and sometimes when I'm alone I talk to myself. The only time I consistently ever allow quiet is before drifting off to sleep (see dreams). Perhaps it is telling that I can accept no aural stimulus if I am deeply ingrained in reading a novel or solving a math problem. It could be that by listening to one thing while doing another prevents me from the exertion of concentrating full brain power on a given task. Have I been handicapping myself this whole time? If I put cotton balls in my ears would I be some great genius? Or am I fooling myself, am I nothing more than what I am? Does music provide a soundtrack to my life, neither improving nor harming my capabilities, just heightening my experiences?" -- excerpt from the autobiography of Seanahan
April 23, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word silence
Ooh, bilby, what a nice pronunciation! You enunciate this word perfectly.
November 28, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word silence
It's music to my ears.
November 28, 2009
bilby commented on the word silence
Practiced for hours, I did.
November 28, 2009
dontcry commented on the word silence
bilby -- HAR!
November 30, 2009
marky commented on the word silence
like anything else, the value of silence depends on the circumstances.
April 29, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word silence
Szymborska!
April 29, 2011
vendingmachine commented on the word silence
What is so delicate that when you say its name it is broken?
(Too bad bilby's pronunciation is gone along with the other Wordie pronunciations.)
June 23, 2015
vendingmachine commented on the word silence
It's still a struggle to stop calling this site Wordie.
June 23, 2015