Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - silence

~1 n 1 »NO NOISE« complete absence of sound or noise  (In the silence he heard a faint clicking noise.) + of  (Nothing disturbed the silence of the night.) silence falls (on/upon) (=it begins to be completely quiet)  (After the explosion, an eerie silence fell upon the scene. | break/shatter the silence)  (The silence was suddenly broken by a loud scream. | absolute/complete/dead silence)  (the complete silence of the forest at night) 2 »NO TALKING« a) complete quiet because no one is talking, or a period of complete quiet  (There was a long silence before anyone answered. | She raised her hand and waited for silence. | "Silence!" thundered the judge. | in silence (=not saying anything))  (We walked back to the house in silence. | embarrassed/awkward/stunned etc silence)  (There was a moment's embarrassed silence. | stony silence (=when someone has said something very shocking or unreasonable))  (Their suggestion was met with a stony silence.) b) failure or refusal to discuss something or answer questions about something + on  (The government's silence on such an important issue seems very strange.) take sb's silence for/as (=think that someone's silence has a particular meaning)  (She took his silence as an agreement.) 3 »NO COMMUNICATION« failure to write a letter to someone, telephone them etc  (After two years of silence he suddenly got in touch with us again.) 4 reduce sb to silence to speak to someone so angrily, rudely etc that they are too shocked or upset to reply  (This stinging criticism reduced me to silence for the rest of the meeting.) 5 a one-minute silence/two-minute silence etc a period of time in which everyone stops talking as a sign of honour and respect towards someone who has died ~2 v 1 to make someone stop talking, or stop something making a noise  ("Just a minute," she snapped, silencing him with a look of hatred.) 2 to make someone stop expressing opposition or criticisms  (Opponents of the regime were silenced by threats of violence. | a brilliant new book that silenced her critics)