How To Use Silence In A Sentence

Silence is the rule for our heroes, and that means a bit of extra claustrophobia to scenes that would otherwise be totally generic.
We drove home in silence and, when he parked in our long driveway, I stopped to pluck some ixora flowers while Nnamabia unlocked the front door. Excerpt: The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An incredulous snort came from Chris, and I gave him dirty look that silenced him up.
The two males held their silence as she finished, all the noise ceased apart from the soft pad of hooves in the night air.
Rebecca was too embarrassed to reply, but he took her silence as an affirmative.

They stood in silence as a mark of honour to her.
Here, the curatorial silence makes you study both extremes. Times, Sunday Times
The spirit of a soldier of the Truth entered into me; weary as I was, I rushed from the dusky corner where I had been hidden in the twilight, ran to the altar, and held up my hand with my hymn-book as I began to repeat an address that had often silenced the papistic mummers in England. In the Wrong Paradise
They said that as their longer "taciturnity" might cause the ruin of his Majesty's affairs, they were at last compelled to break silence. The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-84)
The empty expanses of the puna, as the grasslands are called in the Andes, correspond to the silence in which we walked.
They sat in silence, and with tireless patience watched our every motion with that vile, uncomplaining impoliteness which is so truly The Innocents Abroad
Profoundly discouraged, we ride on after this in mournful silence. Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys
But I was going through a reclusive and non-communicative phase, and his efforts to talk to me, to establish genuine communication, were met with a stony and moody silence.
Here a general murmur arose, and the teacher, opening her lips for the first time, ejaculated — “Silence, mesdemoiselles!” The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte
There was a strained silence for a while and then in the distance there was a clap of thunder.
The driver nodded in acknowledgement and a further 20 seconds of silence passed before he spoke again.
His time in the war rose between us like a vaporous cloud that silenced his pain and obscured my ability to understand it.
After about two hours of tweets mentioning the lay-off, Philip Brasher broke the silence, also with a tweet: "Saddest part: DM Register opened bureau nearly 80 yrs ago to cover ag policy when Wallace became ag secy. Paula Crossfield: Why Laying Off Ag Reporter Philip Brasher Is Bad for Food
The almost desperate character of the effort to silence or drown out antiwar protests suggests that something more than mindless flag-waving is going on here.
Suddenly the silence was interrupted by the sound of arrows whizzing and striking soft objects.
They are sharing, in a companionable silence somehow caught on camera, a moment of profound reflection and thought.
The soldiers listened in silence as their captain gave the orders.
When the sudden silence had enfolded the room in its velvet cloak, he had known that he was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the wielder of such power.
Each group maintained a dignified silence as the marchers passed on their pilgrimage to uphold Republican martyrology.
Give yourself the love and approval you want and silence your natural instincts to give into the nagging and negativity that can dominate your thoughts.
He scowled at Zilla, whose withered lips were again writhing into speech, and compelled her to silence. The White Man's Way
Frothy geysers and hissing fumaroles vent into icy air, huge herds of elk and bison gather in low basins for food and warmth, the forest glitters with ice, and a blanket of snow brings a rare silence.
The third, guess what, insects, no, the water bug, is not right, what ah, you say that the silence Haw.
The pulse of war that beat from the West suggested the companionship of battling thousands; here was naught but silence, and himself, and possible death-dealing bullets from a myriad ambushes. War
Male pride forced him to suffer in silence.
There followed a silence that Nicandra could neither interrupt nor question - they were the Grown-Ups.
Jewish life is poignantly described in Wiesel's journal, "The Jews of Silence".
Who wants to go to a dingy playing room to get crushed in silence when you can go to the pub and talk to your friends.
Into the brief silence, Allie said So, how your family commenced is not what you thought. MORE FROM GINNY BATES: JANUARY 1990
At first sight it can seem very hard and austere, with a daily schedule comprising set periods of silence, prayer, work and recreation.
A chock full pool of water, after blowing off silence.
‘Thank you, sire,’ she said in a bow before trailing after the two scouts in silence.
The event is held the day after Balinese Hindus celebrate Silence Day.
A brief silence followed, in which she tried to retaliate with a clever comeback and he frowned angrily at the ground.
From this silence there arises a certain mysterious plenitude which filters into thought and there congeals into bronze. The compression of history produces conciseness in the historian.
Will the sounds of those delightful Sichuan sitcoms be silenced forever?
But just now, on the train from Fribourg back home, the productive and calm silence was interrupted by an announcement where to find the restaurant in four languages, and when the "minibar" passed the upper deck of our wagon, the voice again made sure we knew. Planet Debian
There is something in the air that silences everybody, even small children, as they pass either side of the catafalque, occasionally glancing upwards at the four statues of Saxon kings and the 12 th century roof.
Rather than booing, fans recall it was more a wall of silence that greeted his efforts, but they would get their comeuppance soon enough.
The carriage teetered precariously as he moved to take a seat opposite her and they stared at each other in a calming silence as she drank, but once she finished, the cup fell from her loose fingers and clattered loudly on the floor.
The 4-0 performance was also one Parsley hopes will silence the critics.
‘We take credit cards,’ chirped the tall curly brunette - the weaker of the two - who was quickly silenced by a withering glance.
She switched off the radio and slowed the car in the silence.
A scream broke the silence of the night.
Savage returned the gun to the cabinet, relishing the silence of his apartment. MINUTES TO BURN
She thought her little five-year-old heartbeat came to a dead stop in the silence.
The silence was broken by the gavel pounding on the judge's perch.
An uncanny silence descended on a school as pupils made a superhuman effort to clamp their lips tightly shut.
The police investigation was met with a wall of silence.
Once more the evening sky is dark and the streets are empty, the silence broken only by the familiar rumbling bass from high performance stereos passing in the night.
But there was the usual reverent silence, broken by the occasional embarrassed cough or ripple of restrained applause.
The House observed two-minute silence in memory of the children.
There was silence in the room, but only because Arnold did not bristle audibly. A CONVICTION OF GUILT
I did an unannounced radio silence yesterday: no sending personal e-mail except in emergencies, no reading anything online -- lj, Facebook, comics, news, nothing. Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway
That's what it was like to sniff Silences, from the sharp but already layered opening through the dark green first layer and on into the galbanum earth to the very smooth remnants of extreme dry down. Archive 2009-01-01
Rimna held his hands up for silence, not even trying to speak over the tumultuous noise.
I am not how free and easy, nor is it how sad, I'm just used to silence.
Bewildered by the suddenness of this blow, I could but watch in helpless silence the advancing throng, with my poor friends in their midst, their hands bound, their tottering footsteps directed by rude shoves towards the pipul tree, the accustomed assembly place of the villagers and the village council. Tales of Destiny
_Coeteris paribus_ -- all the other usual conditions being observed, such as silence, the fixed gaze, monotony of attention -- let the galvanic disk be put aside, and in its place let a sixpence or a fourpenny-piece be employed, or indeed any similar small object on which the eyes of the patient must remain fixed for the usual space of time, and we will promise that the experiments thus made shall be equally successful with those in which the so-called galvanic disk is employed. Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 446 Volume 18, New Series, July 17, 1852
The only sound to break the silence of the night was the soft mutter of my engine.
Now the silence settled over the garden was thick and heavy, a stark contrast to the chirping and tweeting he was so accustomed to.
Silence has long been a tenet of mystery religions such as Wicca, as well as other fraternal organizations such as the Masons, or the Golden Dawn.
Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
The silence was broken only by the splash of an alligator leaping on some prey far below, and the mournful pipe of some jungle bird across the rivers.
After another few minutes' silence, they heard distinct sounds of hoof beats.
A silence came over them as neither knew what to say next to break the uneasy silence.
A voice broke through the silence, calling out her name.
There was instant silence from the dog, although Tony continued his whining bawl in her ear. Western Man
Ross watched her deteriorate in gloomy and unreproving silence. The Second Generation
First, the gun, a Glock P17, and a customized Steyr silencer. CHAMELEON
There is beauty in silence and there is silence in beauty and you can find both in a bicycle! Mehmet Murat ildan
He played it as he shaped it: the last low string whose reverberations set his own sword belling in anguish and shattered every other weapon inside and out of the halt Silence settled like old dust over the room. Harpist in the Wind
At the moment, silence is being maintained over both the arming of the land forces and the total cost of the military plans.
People speak readily of the untended wounds of the dead, but practice silence on the topic of the peaceful, pluralistically driven, and loving Muslims who are seeking to build this center of community. Grant Brooke, M.Div.: Hindsight: Burying the Ghost of Ground Zero
The silence of the night pictures itself before him in the form of an endless expanse of perfectly calm, dark water, which has overflowed everything and congealed; there is not a ripple on it, not a shadow of a motion, and neither is there anything within it, although it is bottomlessly deep. The Man Who Was Afraid
This silence is no big deal to her, because she knows she will phone when she feels like it and I will be there.
Phillis," said he, after a long silence, "do you know, it is my opinion that that old creature," pointing with his thumb to Aunt Peggy's house, "is so long used to grumblin 'and fussin', that she can't, to save her life, lie still in her grave. Aunt Phillis's Cabin Or, Southern Life As It Is
Older and chubbier, which doesn't matter, he is a torrentially powerful, elemental actor, whose outbursts mesmerize, and whose very silences impress.
She rang the doorbell, listened to the silence within and felt a moment of panic.
His voice trailed off into silence.
Sir Max had fulminated against the government's call to silence in a leader-page article in the Daily Mail.
Running towards the house alone, through a hail of bullets, he threw bombs at the position and silenced the gun.
They were awed into silence by the sternness of her voice.
At first he listened to the tongue-lashing in virtual silence.
Oh for the good old days when it was acceptable to go to the druggist, whisper "paregoric" to him/her, and a few drops brought blessed silence! The Sound Of Crazy
A polite tongue provided a shield of tactful silence and banal pleasantries that staved off needless provocation and harm.
After a week of silence the fight was rescheduled and the hostilities between the two continued.
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. Leonardo da Vinci
The shortest of the three men came up on to the dock, took a gun with a silencer attached from under his dustcoat, said, 'Sorry about this,' and shot Frank Minto twice in the chest. Autumn Maze
Because loved a crazy, so see you still smiling silence.
In fact ask any management specialist, from any sector, to exclude every word of jargon from a conversation, and there is likely to be silence.
And in the midst of this discussion, making a sudden and awestricken silence, appeared The Wheels of Chance: a bicycling idyll
The average person doesn't spend even 30 minutes a month in total silence and tranquility.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff lamented the deaths of what she called "defenseless children" and asked for a minute of silence to honor the youngsters. 11 Children Killed in Brazil School Shooting
there was a shocked silence
Quiet and silence is a form of power. Thoughtful and wise people are not talkative people. Dr T.P.Chia
There was a rapturous ring of silence abiding perfectly.
Words had yet to be spoken, and Katherine found her apprehension returning in the silence.
There was a strained silence and when Helen spoke again, her voice suddenly lacked its formerly friendly tone.
There is a conspiracy of silence about what is happening, says Christina Hardyment That's entertainment.
Jamie Blandford broke his silence after two jail terms and an estranged marriage, to appear on breakfast television.
The AGM commenced with a minute's silence as a mark of respect to former members, family members and comrades who had passed away during the previous year.
The Government has already closed down two newspapers in a bid to silence its critics.
There's a bit of nudging and jostling while they get comfortable on their roost, but then suddenly the twittering stops as though a conductor drops his baton after the final note, then silence.
After years of keeping quiet it is time to find his voice, time to send out echoes into the uneasy silence.
I am not how free and easy, nor is it how sad, I'm just used to silence.
As we sat in the departure lounge at the airport there was a national moment of silence to honor the dead.
Shelley saw how, as the sun faded among the trees just as we would see it now: ‘pallid evening twines its beaming hair in duskier braids around the languid eyes of day: silence and twilight, unbeloved of men, creep hand in hand’.
Reid, Utolia and Juris finally break into a rock-like, power chord driven finale that ends with a muted Hagans slurring his way to silence. Ralph A. Miriello: Tim Hagans' The Moon Is Waiting
His silence is a matter which is neutral in terms of providing positive proof of his guilt.
Silence descended on a village school when pupils held a sponsored hush for charity.
Their silence, to look at its positive aspect, possibly reflects a refusal to be associated with the task of making geoengineering look respectable.
We observed a minute's silence out of respect for the disaster victims.
But I now see I've felt unhappy whenever I've been surrounded by silence – as I was as an undergraduate in London – and been content when sound is at hand: such as in my uncle's two-storey house in Kolkata, and in the second-storey flat in Bandra in suburban Mumbai to which my parents moved after my father retired. Amit Chaudhuri's musical circumnavigation
But the design of the interior surfaces and the positioning of the seats aren't just pretty to look at: they're precision-made to provide acoustics so rich and insulated that George Tsontakis's delicate new piece, for instance, played by musicians positioned throughout the hall, enveloped us in as much silence as the jeweled notes of the strings, winds and percussion. Alex Pasternack: New York's New Alice Tully Hall: A Harmonic Renovation
No one would issue such a direct order, but cloaked in silence is intent, and in a system of "clubbish" cronyism, accomplishment of inferred intent is richly rewarded. Speaking the Unspeakable
The future is already potentially present in the shape of the blind spots and contradictions of the present - in its silences and exclusions, its conflicts and fragmentations.
A toad croaked in the distance breaking the eerie silence that haunted the halls of trees and earth.
She had fatigued herself so much, (growing sensibly weaker) that she sunk her head upon her pillows, ready to faint; and we withdrew to the window, looking upon one another; but could not tell what to say; and yet both seemed inclinable to speak: but the motion passed over in silence. Clarissa Harlowe
A thrush's song was the only sound to break the silence.
The picture I see you painting is that all along there has been death and disease and carnivorism, squeezed into a blank spot of silence just prior to Genesis 1: 2. Alternative to Dembski's Theodicy?
And to my silence as to the causes of her claustration, was it not comprehensible that she should correspond with a similar and constant silence as to her perpetual desires, her innumerable memories and hopes? The Sweet Cheat Gone
There were a few minutes of silence while they were all roasting their marshmallows.
We drove to my house in silence, well silence from our mouths but not from the radio.
They were called magi in their tongue, because they served God in silence and with a low voice. A Philosophical Dictionary
The paradoxical tragedy of knowing this, condemns him to being given to the terrorists by his stepfather, assuring his silence this way.
In his incommunicable world of silence, made the more sordid by isolation and discrimination, he find himself the butt of everybody's abuse and insult.
In fact there was silence until the Earl of Strathmore came in with two dark-haired young men dressed in morning suits.
In dead silence Harley surveyed his putt and Jefferson took up his usual position beside the pin.
Her steps sounded loud in the silence of the room as she walked across the floor to the black curtained bed.
But their awestruck silence was soon replaced by gales of laughter when their teacher read the letter out loud.
The scary bits created tense silence, while relieved cheers followed the good moments.
True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.
Speech is silver, but silence is gold.
An unearthly silence brooded in the cabin, broken only by Bishop filling a basin from the water-bucket, and by Corliss seeking out his smallest and daintiest house-moccasins and his warmest socks. CHAPTER 20
Compare these "pot-hooks and trammels," dotted and double-dotted, with Galin's symbol of silence, the cipher (0)! Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878
That means a venue where the audience doesn't get the jokes and sits there in stony silence as the comedian at the mike goes through his routine. Tough Room
Then silence again fell like a curtain.
Her grandfather was a tyrant who insisted on absolute silence at the dinner table.
They're browsing the wet grass the snow has left and, statued, stare at me in deep silence and I see whatever light there is gather to glossy pools in their eight mild, barely curious but wary eyes. What Light There Is
Five years ago, in the silence of night in Chakar in the mountains, when he had said to Takver, "I will go to Abbenay and unbuild walls. THE DISPOSSESSED
The crowd of Republican delegates, who had been quite generous with their applause up until that point, sat there in stony silence. The Volokh Conspiracy » Is Stimulus Funding Political?
Nor was it truly noise, because if it were noise, then it could cease, and that cessation of sound would be silence.
They drove home in silence, neither really knowing what to say to the other and Jinx not bothering to break the silence.
The latest row arises from an apparent attempt by his closest aide to silence one of the pollsters.
After the initial jolt, there was silence over the intercoms.
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Abraham Lincoln
Now he breaks his silence about the flawed evidence.
He was a charismatic teacher who used silence as well as sharpness of argument as a pedagogical technique. Times, Sunday Times
My mother broke the silence with a question, ‘Do you live nearby?’
Donovan delivered more than he received from Fitin; he sent the Russian reports on oil terminals in Romania, the location of German spare parts depots, Abwehr spying on the Soviets in Turkey, gossip Dulles picked up on Hitler and Göring, along with a sampling of OSS toys, such as the suitcase radio, pistol silencers, pocket incendiaries, and a portable microfilm set with miniature camera for agents photographing documents in the field. Wild Bill Donovan
He was suddenly uneasy in the tense silence.
Slowly, the side of her mouth curled into a smile, and the silence was broken by a quiet snicker.
At this point I chose dignified silence over extended debate.
The right to silence is and is no more than an immunity from adverse inferences from failing to answer an accusation or question or evidence.
She discouraged impertinent curiosity with frozen silence and there is an uneasy feeling, as one reads, that one is prying into her chosen privacy.
She broke the silence by coughing.
The new arrangement caused much criticism of the administrative board members, who maintained a discreet silence.
Guards' keys jangled as you passed the idle silence and time of your life rotting away.
After the silence grew almost tangible in the room, he cleared his throat, and spoke.
Freedom is good but I agree companiable silence, no conversation necessary is a joy. Cinéphile
John between the preceding vision and the following one, implying, on the one hand, the solemn introduction to the eternal sabbatism which is to follow the seventh seal; and, on the other, the silence which continued during the incense-accompanied prayers which usher in the first of the seven trumpets (Re 8: 3-5). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Suddenly, and with appalling quickness the mastodonic brute reared itself on its mighty hind legs and elongated its neck and body in an effort to reach this vociferous pigmy whose clamor was disturbing the primeval silence of its horrible realm. The Conquering Sword Of Conan
The acoustics of the Music Centre will be excellent, including high quality of sound in each studio, and high standards for silence and absence of intrusion.
Meanwhile, Nick breaks the awkward silence with Madge concerning her current plight, and a not very plausible ginger-haired halfwit continues to pursue the ladies. Tonight's TV highlights: Asian Gracefully | Benidorm | Friday Night Dinner | The Simpsons | Ron Sexsmith: Love Shines | Treme
They tannoyed that we would honour 2 minutes silence at 11am and 2 of their workers were merrily walking down the aisle talking to each other.
Any moment now the silence will be broken.
More silence followed, more sand sifted through my fingers.
The snool at her party was silenced.
For a few minutes they lay side by side in companionable silence staring up at the shadows on the ceiling. FALLEN WOMEN
The sullen-faced Xavier glowered in surly silence, but the malignant, beady eyes of Du Mont regarded the officer keenly. The Gun-Brand
There the famous chants are sung, interspersed with Scripture readings and periods of silence.
Robyn waited for him to break the spell of this wonderful, strangely companionable silence.
Properly she should now retreat to the blessed silence of the cloister whence she strayed into the pulpit.
Silence or mere lack of objection does not constitute a lawful waiver.
She fidgeted on her spot, shifting from one foot to another as an uncomfortable silence filled the air, but she was saved when her stomach started grumbling loudly.
There was absolute silence for a while, then a feather-light touch on my hair.
A reverent silence fell over the crowd.
The drawing of inferences from silence is a particularly sensitive area.
You are to hear a voice that puts to silence all others, as the trumpet the flute, as the cicala the bee, as the choir the tuning-fork. Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03
There were another few moments of silence on the phone line, each girl trying to outwait the other, wait for the other to break into some sort of conversation or hang up.
He stopped speaking, and despite the sound of hooves and wagon wheels echoing in the tunnel, an odd sort of silence enveloped his listeners.
It pulls us into a life of silence and inactivity, lying and hiding our true fears.
The most extraordinary feature of the Opposition's response has been the deafening silence of their principal spokesman in relation to the proposals.
And why the deafen silence of the normally vocal Republicans remain mute, with no loud attacks on everything the Media Imperial President has done, with no rhetorical shouting points repeated ad nauseum, just taking the high road with a few reasonable discussions over actual policy points? Matthew Yglesias » The Think Tank Arm of the Military-Industrial Complex
There was complete silence in the room as the play came to its tragic conclusion.
Criticism has now been effectively silenced.
his silence about my contribution was surprising
And if you can hold eight hundred people in dead silence and hear a pin drop you know something's going right.
A counterargument would stress that the greatest learning is derived from the inimitable, silence betrays cowardice, disaffiliation and indie culture give the lie to the unavoidability of affiliation, the literary field exists in many sites other than the academy, self-victimization is the reigning philosophy, program writers are more self-commodifying than the disaffiliated, the system purges internal feedback from dissenters, and the end of excellence is well in sight. Anis Shivani: Can Writing Be Taught? The Systems-Theory Rationalizations Of An Insider
We would have sat in companiable silence popcorn chewing excepted, conversation unnecessary. Swallow
A week in the high desert country of the Wind River Range, with time for silence and solitude, sounded just about right.
She held an absurdly elaborate weapon of some kind, a pistol shape nearly lost beneath a flanged overlay of scope sights, silencers, flash hiders. Wonder Woman and the Lasso of Truth
After the two minutes silence we adjourned to Wetherspoon's for a coffee before the parade left for the parish church.
There was a silence of some seconds, and his yellow ferine gaze met hers strangely. Wylder's Hand

How To Use Silence In A Sentence

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