silent treatment

silent treatment

English

Noun

silent treatment (usually uncountable, plural silent treatments)

1. (idiomatic) A form of social sanction that consists of ignoring a particular individual, neither speaking to that person nor responding to his or her words.
   • 1917, Jack London, "That Dead Men Rise Up Never" in The Human Drift and Other Stories:

     Finally we gave him the silent treatment, and for weeks before he died we neither spoke to him nor did he speak to us.

Usage notes

• Usually preceded by the.

See also

• conspiracy of silence
• freeze out
• ostracize
• send to Coventry (UK)
• shun

Translations

ignoring a particular individual

Chinese: Mandarin: 不理不睬 (zh) (bùlǐbùcǎi) Finnish: eristäminen (fi), mykkäkoulu (fi)

Portuguese: please add this translation if you can Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: hacer el vacío