silence

Formssilences, silencing, silenced

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The complete absence of any sound.

   An uneasy silence settled over the courtroom before the verdict.

   The valley was wrapped in total silence after the snow fell.

   Similarquiet, stillness, hush, quietness

   Oppositenoise, sound, din

   Note

   The root sense comes through Old French from Latin silentium, built on silēre, "to be quiet". The borrowing pushed out the native Old English words swīġe and sālnes. In English it behaves almost like a physical thing: silence falls, settles and is broken, and it can even be called deafening. It also turns up in fixed phrases such as in silence and deadly silence.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of choosing not to speak.

   The witness maintained a stubborn silence throughout the questioning.

   His silence on the matter spoke louder than any protest.

   Similarreticence

   Note

   Here the silence is something a person does, so it can carry a mood. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) has a discomfited silence, and Daniel Webster in 1832 complains that an administration keeps a profound silence. The usual verb is keep, and in law the idea becomes a protection, the right to silence. Unlike the absence of sound, this kind of silence is chosen and can be pointed.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To cause someone or something to become silent.

   The conductor silenced the orchestra with a single gesture.

   A heavy curtain helped silence the traffic noise from outside.

   Similarmute

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To suppress criticism or similar opposition.

   The regime silenced journalists who questioned its policies.

   Officials moved quickly to silence the growing criticism.

   Similarmuzzle, gag, suppress, stifle, censor

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To keep a feeling, thought, or impulse from being outwardly expressed.

   Years of training had taught him to silence his emotions.

   She silenced the grief rising in her chest and smiled.

   Similarsuppress, stifle, repress, smother

   Oppositeexpress

6. 6
   interjectionimperative

   Used as a command for others to stop talking.

   Silence! I will not tolerate another word.

   Silence in the courtroom!

   Similarquiet

   Note

   A bare noun pressed into service as an order, it suits someone with authority to give one, such as a judge or a tyrant. That is why it sounds stern or theatrical. Jeff Dunham's puppet Achmed the Dead Terrorist turns the pomposity into a joke in Spark of Insanity (2007) with "Silence! I kill you!" It usually stands alone with an exclamation mark.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The practice of not speaking in order to pray or meditate, especially as a form of worship among Quakers.

   Quaker worship often unfolds in shared silence broken only when someone feels moved to speak.

   The congregation kept a deep silence until the spirit prompted words.

   Note

   Among Friends the word works almost as the name of a period of worship. People speak of something happening during silence, with no article, much as one says during service. The silence is shared and waited in rather than simply kept. What comes to a worshipper within it may be described as a message, a sign that the quiet is understood as attentive rather than empty.

8. 8
   verbeuphemistictransitive

   To kill or murder someone.

   The informant was silenced before he could testify.

   Rival bosses ordered their men to silence the traitor.

   Similarkill, murder, eliminate

   Note

   This euphemism keeps the motive in view: to silence someone is to kill them so they cannot talk. Mark Shaw's The Poison Patriarch (2013) asks whether anyone would trust Jack Ruby to silence Oswald, where the killing is a way to stop him speaking. Because the political sense need not involve death, the context has to make the meaning clear.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To prevent a gene from being expressed.

   Researchers silenced the gene to observe the resulting changes in the cells.

   This molecule can silence specific genes without affecting neighboring sequences.

   Note

   Molecular biology uses the image as standard terminology: the gene is still present, but its product is not made. Silencing can work before transcription, for example through promoter methylation. It can also work after transcription, as in RNA interference, which stops the message from being translated. The object of the verb is the gene, not the cell or the organism that carries it.

Showing meanings only. Show all 9