I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brief silence
▪
After a brief silence, she made another suggestion.
a deathly hush/silence (= complete silence )
▪
A deathly hush fell over the room.
a vow of silence/poverty/celibacy etc
▪
People close to him have finally broken their vow of silence.
an embarrassed silence
▪
There was an embarrassed silence, then Gina laughed loudly.
awkward silence
▪
an awkward silence
companionable silence
▪
They sat together in companionable silence .
glum silence
▪
After dinner, Kate lapsed into a glum silence .
long silence/pause/delay etc
▪
There was a long silence before anybody spoke.
ominous silence
▪
‘How long will she be ill?’ he asked. There was an ominous silence .
shocked silence
▪
There was a moment of shocked silence.
Silence reigned
▪
Silence reigned while we waited for news.
stony silence
▪
a stony silence
stony-faced silence
▪
Tony stared at me in stony-faced silence .
stunned silence
▪
The audience sat in stunned silence .
thoughtful silence
▪
a thoughtful silence
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
absolute
▪
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 .
awkward
▪
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.
brief
▪
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.
complete
▪
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 .
dead
▪
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 .
heavy
▪
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 .
long
▪
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 .
ominous
▪
An ominous silence .. now intervened...
▪
There is a deep, ominous silence .
▪
But the first few readings he had assigned had produced an ominous silence .
short
▪
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.
stony
▪
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 !
stunned
▪
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 .
sudden
▪
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 .
tense
▪
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.
total
▪
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
break
▪
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.
drive
▪
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.
eat
▪
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.
follow
▪
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.
hear
▪
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 .
keep
▪
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.
lapse
▪
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.
listen
▪
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.
maintain
▪
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.
shatter
▪
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.
sit
▪
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.
stand
▪
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.
suffer
▪
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 .
walk
▪
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.
watch
▪
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
break the silence
▪
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.
conspiracy of 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.
deafening silence
▪
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.
heavy silence/atmosphere
▪
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.
lapse into unconsciousness/silence/sleep etc
▪
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.
pregnant pause/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.
reduce sb to tears/silence etc
▪
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.
shatter the silence/peace
silence/a hush/sadness etc falls
swear sb to secrecy/silence
▪
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.
veil of secrecy/deceit/silence etc
▪
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.
wall of silence/secrecy
▪
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.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
"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.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
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 ?
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
attempt
▪
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.
critic
▪
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 .
voice
▪
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
reduce
▪
Initially, it was the existential absurdity of his predicament that reduced Sooty to silence .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
conspiracy of 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.
deafening silence
▪
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.
heavy silence/atmosphere
▪
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.
pregnant pause/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.
veil of secrecy/deceit/silence etc
▪
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.
wall of silence/secrecy
▪
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.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
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.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
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.