silent treatment

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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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
• passive-aggressive
• send to Coventry (UK)
• shun

Translations

ignoring a particular individual

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不理不睬 (zh) (bùlǐbùcǎi)

• Finnish: eristäminen (fi), mykkäkoulu (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: jemanden mit Schweigen strafen
• Italian: trattamento del silenzio
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: hacer el vacío