silent treatment
16
5.5
- noun
- /ˈsaɪlənt ˈtritmənt/
- Offensive
:
vacío
- After their argument, they both decided to give each other the silent treatment for a few days.
- give me the silent treatment
- weeks of silent treatment
- getting the silent treatment
Adults do the silent treatment and a silent treatment is punishing somebody.
- Adults do the silent treatment and a silent treatment is punishing somebody.
- Being passive aggressive, giving someone the silent treatment, going on the attack, judging them.
- So accommodators hope based how do they signal fury, the silent treatment?
- No, my dad gave me the silent treatment for a week.
- The cold shoulder, silent treatment, again, as I mentioned, punishing them, purposely doing less for them.
- So on the very extreme side of the spectrum, it's almost like a silent treatment, like maybe you'll talk a little bit, but not much.
- So the silent treatment can be used to create anxiety with you in within you can be used to create fear within you.
- More rage, silent treatments, passive aggression, overt aggression.
- So the silent treatment is exactly what it sounds like.
Examples
-
My friend felt hurt because I gave her the silent treatment after our disagreement.
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The way that I was punished was through silent treatment and that would happen for days or weeks on end.
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Are you giving me the silent treatment?
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Give me a little silent treatment for the rest of the journey.
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Am I getting the silent treatment?
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When you have a parent that gives you the silent treatment, how does that impact you?
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Look, I really can't handle the silent treatment from both my kids.
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I can't take this silent treatment.
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Don't give me the silent treatment.
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You're giving me the silent treatment.
Synonyms
181
4.0
Not speaking about something when people ask you
A deliberate refusal to speak or share information with others
Antonyms
How Severe
1
7.6
1
7.2
- Offensive
16
5.5
- Informal
8
4.6
- Informal
21
4.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'treatment' = a way of treating someone and 'silent' describes that manner, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it means treating someone by being silent (i.e., deliberately ignoring them). This construction is semantically transparent and parallels similar expressions in other languages, making the meaning predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Silent treatment likely comes from the simple picture of one person refusing to speak to another as a kind of punishment. The word silent is the quiet and treatment means 'the way someone is treated', so the phrase means 'ignoring or refusing to speak to someone' to show anger or disapproval.