deafening silence
3
4.6
- noun
- /ˈdɛfənɪŋ ˈsaɪləns/
:
silencio ensordecedor
- Amid the deafening silence of the desert night, all they could hear was the sound of their own breathing.
- met with a deafening silence
Examples
-
You're right; there has been a deafening silence for about the last 9 months or so.
Blog text (34) -
Unfortunately, there is a deafening silence in our world when it comes to practicing humility.
Blog text (19) -
Another moment of deafening silence followed.
Fiction book (1994) -
But from this video, we have instead a deafening silence.
Blog text (21) -
That deafening silence when people stopped going to work, stopped going to school, stopped caring about anything.
-
Apparently it must not be too bad, judging from the DEAFENING SILENCE that is the reply to the concerns of these good people.
Blog text (24) -
We relished the deafening silence that surrounded us.
Blog text (1) -
It is the deafening silence from the Town Board as a whole, and from individual members, that prompts the questions.
Blog text (32) -
And then everything becomes perfectly still—the rumbling stops—a deafening silence—then—
Fiction book (1997) -
The meeting ended in deafening silence, leaving everyone shocked by the unexpected decision.
Synonyms
660
2.0
A period with no sound or speech
45
1.0
A calm time with little or no sound
18
5.2
A period when a person or group does not communicate
7
1.0
A lack of noise or disturbance in a place
6
4.3
A tense pause in a conversation that makes people feel uncomfortable
1
7.3
A complete lack of sound in a place
A complete lack of sound in a place
A deep quiet often felt in a church or library
Antonyms
How Silent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines literal constituents ('deafening' = extremely loud, 'silence' = absence of sound) into a familiar oxymoron; a learner who knows both words can usually infer it means an emphatic or conspicuous absence of noise. However, the meaning relies on a metaphorical/figurative use of 'deafening' applied to silence rather than a straightforward compositional meaning, so understanding may require awareness of this figurative pattern even though many languages have a similar construction.
Etymology
Deafening silence comes from the image of a quiet so strong it feels as loud as a noise; deafening means very loud and silence means no sound. That's why the phrase describes a silence everyone notices, like when a question gets 'no answer'.