I. ˈsīlənt adjective
( often -er/-est )
Etymology: Latin silent-, silens, from present participle of silēre to be silent; akin to Gothic ana silan to subside, abate (of wind), Latin sinere to leave, let go, lay — more at site
1. : making no utterance:
a. : unable to speak : mute , tongue-tied , awestruck
stared at the Pacific … silent , upon a peak in Darien — John Keats
b. : unaccustomed or indisposed to speak : not conversing or answering : resolved not to speak
he laughed and chattered, but she was silent , seeming to brood over something — D.H.Lawrence
the silent suspect, refusing to answer the police
2. : free from sound or noise : making no sound or noise : perfectly quiet : noiseless , still
a silent room
a silent audience
a silent forest
3.
a. : conducted, performed, enjoyed, or borne without spoken word or utterance : unspoken , tacit
the banquet, at first so silent , slowly changes to a merry tumult — Lafcadio Hearn
silent protest must at length come to words — Thomas Carlyle
silent reading
silent prayer
b. : not expressed in words : felt or experienced without expression in words or vocal utterance
suffering in silent grief
4.
a. : making no mention or account : omitting explanation and leaving questions unanswered
on the crucial point of enforcement methods the assembly resolution is silent — Ruth Lawson
did not tell us that logic is to be ignored when experience is silent — B.N.Cardozo
remained silent on the reasons for the change
b. : not recorded : not mentioned, explained, or referred to
the secretary's silent role in the conspiracy
c. : not known or not generally known : unnoticed and therefore not appreciated
the railways might well be said to render a silent service — O.S.Nock
new ways of life developing under the silent pressure of a freer environment — V.L.Parrington
d. : taking no active part in the conduct of a business
a silent member of a firm
— compare silent partner
e. : unresponsive especially from lack of feeling or understanding
this humbug of the judge as a soulless automaton whose mind and heart are silent when he performs his operations — H.J.Laski
5. : being an orthographic letter or letter combination which if removed from a word would still leave letters enough to account for the pronunciation of the word
silent b in doubt
silent ph in phthisis
or which serves as a conventional indicator of the quality of another letter without itself being pronounced
silent e in pine shows that the i has the value ī rather than the value i in pin
6.
a. : maintaining a state of inactivity
a silent volcano
b.
(1) : not exhibiting the usual evidences (as signs or symptoms) of presence
a silent bone fracture
silent heat in cattle
: causing no symptoms
silent gallstones
silent tuberculosis
(2) : characterized by such a silent state
the silent phase of a tumor
(3) : yielding no detectable response to stimulation — used especially of an association area of the brain
7. : flavorless , flat — used of distilled spirits especially when rectified for use in the arts
8.
a. : lacking spoken dialogue
b. : of or relating to silent motion pictures
the silent screen
Hollywood in the great days of the silent stars — Budd Schulberg
9. : inaudible to the human ear because outside its frequency range
a silent dog whistle
Synonyms:
reticent , reserved , taciturn , uncommunicative , close , close-mouthed, close-lipped , tight-lipped , secretive : as here discussed, silent may refer to a disposition to speak rather little or to a determination not to speak
a silent man with a great sense of his personal worth which made his speeches guarded — Joseph Conrad
was very silent during the speech and … had listened attentively — George Meredith
reticent indicates reluctance to speak out induced either by cautious discreetness or by shy lack of assertiveness
almost reticent in his stingy use of words exactly chiseled out of the moment's need — W.A.White
about his own experiences … was inclined to be reticent … because he considered them, as he put it, uninteresting — Kenneth Roberts
reserved describes speaking or acting under the restraining influence of caution or formality checking easy unguarded expression
I wished that she had told me frankly … Jane was always so reserved — Rose Macaulay
even the reserved Washington wrote caustically of their bad manners — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
taciturn suggests a deep and accustomed disinclination to talk much; it may connote the unsociable or the laconic
he had become more and more gloomy and taciturn. Mills tried in vain to draw him into talk — C.B.Nordhoff & J.N.Hall
always taciturn, he now hardly spoke at all — Stuart Cloete
uncommunicative indicates an unwillingness to impart information
an atomic scientist quite uncommunicative about his work
close indicates a general disposition to keep information from being revealed
will confide in nobody … every one feels that he is emphatically close — J.H.Newman
you're a close one, but you give yourself away sometimes — Willa Cather
closed-mouthed and close-lipped have about the same suggestions as close , although they are more likely to be used in reference to matters confidential or secret
a millionaire's close-mouthed confidential secretary
a duke's close-lipped adviser
tight-lipped may suggest resolute or determined silence about a specific matter
company officials, all tight-lipped about the uranium thefts
secretive suggests either a disposition towards carefully guarding secrets or undue caution or concealment about less important matters
you're so excessively secretive that I can't help being curious — Dashiell Hammett
II. noun
( -s )
1. obsolete : a time of silence
the silent of the night — Shakespeare
2. silents plural : motion pictures without spoken dialogue
some primitive Western of the silents, at which you were supposed to laugh — Edmund Wilson
in the days of the silents — Alfred Kazin
III. adjective
: having no detectable function or effect
silent DNA
silent genes