silent treatment en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
-
(uncountable, usually) A form of communication refusal where one person deliberately ignores or withholds interaction from another, often in order to express anger, disapproval, or to exert control.
Finally we gave him the silent treatment, and for weeks before he died we neither spoke to him nor did he speak to us.
1917, Jack London, “That Dead Men Rise Up Never”, in The Human Drift, New York: Macmillan, page 40:to give someone the silent treatment
So sailors used a tried technique to deal with an offender: the silent treatment. They would ignore him completely for weeks on end. That might sound like an innocuous action to you, but in truth, it was far from it. The silent treatment was, according to the writer Otis Ferguson in 1944, “a process so effective in the monotony of ship’s life as to make strong men weep.”
2024 March 21, Arthur C. Brooks, “Whatever You Do, Don’t Do the Silent Treatment”, in The Atlantic:We met one woman who had been given the silent treatment by her husband for 40 years. If the silent treatment becomes a longstanding pattern, you lose self-esteem and perspective.
2023 December 12, Anita Chaudhuri, “The silent treatment: ‘One woman was ostracised by her husband for 40 years’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| silent treatments | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Relateds
radio silence · ostracize · cold treatment · wall of silence · send to Coventry · freeze out · cold shoulder · shun · conspiracy of silence · passive-aggressive
Synonyms
ostracism · ostracism · petalism · ostracization · discommendation · blacklisting · silent treatment · avoidance · avoidance · blackballing · shunning · shunning
Translations (16)
cmn 不理不睬 (ignoring a particular individual) · uk іґнорува́ння (ignoring a particular individual) · es hacer el vacío (ignoring a particular individual) · fi mykkäkoulu (ignoring a particular individual) · fi eristäminen (ignoring a particular individual) · de mit Schweigen strafen (ignoring a particular individual) · sv tiga ihjäl (ignoring a particular individual) · tl tampo (ignoring a particular individual) · de anschweigen (ignoring a particular individual) · pt deixar no vácuo (ignoring a particular individual) · pl ciche dni (ignoring a particular individual) · ar صَمْت عِقَابِيّ (ignoring a particular individual) · it trattamento del silenzio (ignoring a particular individual) · hu csenddel verés (ignoring a particular individual) · uk бойко́т (ignoring a particular individual) · es ley del hielo (ignoring a particular individual)