pact of silence
- noun
- /pækt əv ˈsaɪləns/
:
pacto de silencio
- The children formed a pact of silence about their secret.
Examples
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The friends entered into a pact of silence after the incident at the park.
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Breaking their pact of silence would have meant betraying their trust in each other.
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Journalists tried to uncover the truth, but a pact of silence kept the details hidden.
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They made a pact of silence during the investigation.
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The two friends made a pact of silence after the incident, agreeing never to discuss it again.
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In the world of politics, a pact of silence often helps prevent scandals from coming to light.
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They had a pact of silence about their childhood secrets, promising to keep them hidden forever.
Synonyms
9
6.7
A promise not to tell private information to other people
3
8.1
An agreement to stay silent to hide something wrong
3
7.2
A group's choice to stay silent to protect members from blame
1
9.9
A rule not to tell people outside about crimes in a gang
Antonyms
How Secret
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'pact' (an agreement) combined with 'silence' (withholding speech) yields an agreement to remain silent. The prepositional linking 'of' is a standard pattern and similar expressions exist in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Pact of silence comes from the image of people making a quiet promise: a pact to keep their silence, like everyone putting a finger to their lips and agreeing not to speak. So, the phrase means 'to keep a secret' or 'not to speak about something'.