| 释义 |
silent, a. and n.|ˈsaɪlənt|
[ad. L. silent-em, pres. pple. of silēre to be silent.]
A. adj.
1. a. Keeping or maintaining silence; refraining from speech or utterance; speechless, mute, dumb. Also, taciturn, reticent, reserved. Phr. strong silent man (or person, type, etc.): a man who conceals and controls his feelings.
1565Cooper Thesaurus, Taciturnulus, somwhat silente. 1580Fulke Dang. Rock 164 He is as silent as a Stone. 1588Greene Perimedes Wks. (Grosart) VII. 22 Delia by being silent, seemed to consent. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 178 Pol. She dances featly. Shep. So she do's anything, though I report it That should be silent. 1664Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 167 Upon so extraordinary occasions..had I an hundred tongues I should be struck silent. 1715Pope Iliad i. 430 At awful Distance long they silent stand, Loth to advance, or speak their hard Command. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian i, Which kept him silent, notwithstanding his wish to speak. 1821Scott Kenilw. vi, If I could think myself the cause of Tressilian's ruin,..I might be brought to be silent. 1840Carlyle Chartism iv. 30 With this strong silent people have the noisy vehement Irish now at length got common cause made. 1848Dickens Dombey i, They were both silent for a time, she weeping. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 374 Throughout the two dialogues Socrates continues a silent auditor. 1905Beerbohm in Sat. Rev. 23 Sept. 401/1 He is going to cry? No, the hero is one of those strong, silent men. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister Street I. ii. xv. 407 She said I must be careful not to grow up into a strong silent Englishman, because their day was done. 1919A. A. Milne Not that it Matters 142 It is useless to model ourselves now on the strong, silent man of the novel whose face is a shutter to hide his emotions. 1936W. S. Maugham Cosmopolitans 260 These for the most part are strong silent men who waste no words. 1978L. Charteris Saint & Templar Treasure (1979) i. 25 I've always fancied myself as the strong silent type.
absol.1778F. Burney Evelina lxiv, She has neither leisure nor thought to attend to the silent.
b. transf. and fig. of things.
1605Shakes. Lear i. iv. 70 My duty cannot be silent, when I thinke your Highnesse wrong'd. 1659Gentl. Calling (1696) 160 Idleness though a Crying sin..hath been the silentest of my guilts. 1757Gray Epitaph Mrs. Clarke 1 Where this silent marble weeps, A friend, a wife, a mother, sleeps. 1779Mirror No. 61, There is a silent chronicle of past hours in the inanimate things amidst which they have been spent. 1824Byron Juan xvi. viii, The song was silent, and the dance expired. 1838Lytton Alice 16 Respect the silent heart of your mother. 1862Tennyson Ded. Idylls 16 All narrow jealousies Are silent; and we see him as he moved.
c. Of animals, birds, etc.
1801Latham Gen. Synop. Birds Suppl. II. 204 Silent Tanager... Inhabits the thick woods of Guiana... A solitary bird. 1809Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. ii. 330 Silent shrike... Native of the interior of Africa and the Cape of Good Hope. 1832Tennyson Œnone 25 The grasshopper is silent in the grass.
phrase.1828Lytton Pelham lx, The silent sow sups all the broth. 1855Haliburton Nature & Hum. Nature I. vii. 201 The silent pig is the best feeder.
d. as silent as the grave: of a place, hushed, containing no natural noise; of a person, secretive, discreet.
1823J. F. Cooper Pilot I. vi. 78 ‘Does he keep silent?’ ‘As the grave.’ 1829W. Scott Jrnl. 1 July (1946) 89 The house..became silent as the grave. 1889R. L. Stevenson Master of Ball. iii. 62 We..lowered ourselves softly into a skiff, and left that ship behind us as silent as the grave. 1936W. S. Maugham Cosmopolitans 269, I will be as silent as the grave, but honestly I don't understand. What does it all mean?
2. Of writers, books, etc.: Omitting mention of or reference to, passing over or disregarding, something in narration; containing no account or record. Const. † in, of, as to, † to.
1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 171 For (to be silent in matters of more auncient memory) about the yeare of our lorde 1300 [etc.]. 1629Pemble On Zachary 92 Why were they silent of the other fasts, and touch onely vpon this? 1686Plot Staffordsh. 398 Our Historians..would not certainly have been silent of so considerable a structure, had they been the Authors of it. 1762Foote Orators i. Wks. 1780 II. 25 The Court-Register has been silent to the members of common-council. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 280 Although history be silent as to many other inundations of the like kind. 1858Nat. Rev. Oct. 505 The men of letters are so silent of them as to indicate [etc.]. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 224 As to the other shire.. history is equally silent.
3. a. Characterized or marked by silence or absence of speech; performed, made, suffered, etc., in silence or without speaking.
the silent system, a method of discipline enforced in a prison, penitentiary, etc., which imposes complete silence on all occasions.
1592Daniel Compl. Rosamond 128 Sweet silent Rhetorique of perswading eyes. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxv. §5 Religion hauing likewise her silent rites. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. 204 Princes politickly understanding their mutual secret language (not to say silent signs). 1691Hartcliffe Virtues 319 His Religion was to be placed in a sober and silent Piety. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. xiv. 20 A Country-Life was then your silent Prayer. 1779Mirror No. 27, That silent and majestic sorrow which commands our reverence and our admiration. 1819Scott Ivanhoe xxxviii, The younger knights told each other with their eyes, in silent correspondence [etc.]. 1836–7Dickens Sk. Boz, Scenes xvii, We went over the House of Correction..to witness the operation of the silent system. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 14 She took care that they should be silent tears. 1891Fishing Gaz. 14 Feb. 85/3 Then he drank a silent whiskey and left.
b. Of letters: Not sounded or pronounced; mute. See also quot. 1662.
1605Camden Rem. (1623) 27 The adding..of our silent E, in the end of some words. 1662Playford Skill Mus. i. viii. (1674) 26 Pauses or Rests are silent Characters, or an artificial omission of the Voyce or Sound. 1711J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 301 Other Letters..are quiescent or silent. 1869Ellis E.E. Pronunc. I. 570 The final e seems to have become silent even in 14. or 13. in the northern parts of the country. 1881Tylor Anthrop. vii. 179 The now silent letters are relics of sounds which used to be really heard in Anglo-Saxon.
c. Unmentioned, unrecorded; marked by the absence of any record. rare.
1616in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. III. 46, I cannot keep silent the singular pietie & bouldnesse of a certaine woeman. 1868Milman St. Paul's ii. 28 He was bishop..for ten silent years. 1981Macniven & Moore Literary Lifelines p. v, Silent corrections have been limited to restoring transposed letters.
d. (See quot.)
1888Heron Church Sub-Apostolic Age 90 His quotations are what have been called ‘Silent’, without any mention of the source.
e. Of a cinema film: unaccompanied by sound recording. Also in extended use to designate that which is related to or concerned with the silent film industry.
1914[see filmdom]. 1918N.Y. Times 25 Nov. 11/3 (heading) Two opera stars in silent films. 1927Melody Maker Sept. 933/3, I can see very little difference between the music appropriate to the spoken drama and that for the silent screen. 1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? iv. 59 He was married to one of the big silent stars. 1967Listener 30 Nov. 712/2 Rooming houses full of stars of silent pictures whom nobody remembers. 1977R. Barnard Death on High C's ii. 19 In Owen's production..you will be the silent-film heroine, and I will be the silent-film handsome seducer.
4. a. Characterized by the absence of sound or noise; quiet, noiseless, still.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. ii. i. 22 Till painefull studie shall out-weare three yeares, No woman may approach his silent Court. 1594― Rich. III, v. iii. 85 The silent houres steale on, And flakie darkenesse breakes within the East. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 14 The nights..whose length is abundantly able..to stirre up our phantasie by a silent quietnesse. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 547 Others more milde, Retreated in a silent valley. a1770Jortin Serm. (1771) V. 42 The Providence of God acts in a silent and mysterious manner. 1794Coleridge Tears in Solitude 1 A green and silent spot, amid the hills, A small and silent dell! 1833Tennyson Lotos-Eaters 16 Three mountain-tops, Three silent pinnacles of aged snow. 1887L. Oliphant Episodes iv. 67 It involved..bark-canoeing on distant and silent lakes.
b. Making, or giving out, no noise or sound.
1753Challoner Cath. Chr. Instr. 220 From..this Day..our Bells are silent throughout the Catholic Church. 1798in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. p. clvi, The Guerrier and Conquérant..continued for a considerable time to fire..a gun or two, and about 8 o'clock..were totally silent. 1827Pollok Course Time ix, He went abroad, With foot as silent as the starry dews. 1859Tennyson Marr. Geraint 321 A piece of turret stair Worn by the feet that now were silent. 1890R. Academy Catal. 52 North Sea fishermen call screw steamers ‘Silent Deaths’, from their noiseless approach.
c. Of machinery, etc.: operating with or causing a minimum of noise.
1887Encycl. Brit. XXII. 524/1 Dr. Otto's ‘silent’ engine, introduced in 1876, was the first successful motor of the modern type. 1904A. B. F. Young Compl. Motorist (ed. 2) iv. 103 The silent working of the Lanchester car makes it also an extremely useful carriage for town use. a1943H. A. Whitcombe in J. Joyce Trams of Past (1979) 25 The citizens of Birmingham were proud of their steam trams and acclaimed them before all others for their..smooth and silent running.
5.
†a. Of the moon: Not shining. Obs.
a1646J. Gregory Posthuma (1650) 202 The most easie deliverie..is alwaies in the increas, toward and in the full of the Moon, and the hardest labors in the new and silent Moon. a1727Newton Daniel i. xi. (1733) 160 The Jews referred all the time of the silent moon, as they phrased it, that is, of the moon's disappearing, to the old moon.
b. Inactive, quiescent, not operative.
1745tr. Columella's Husb. iv. xxx, The proper time for setting them is before they bud, while the rods are silent [L. dum silent virgæ]. 1828–32[see silent partner, sense 7 below]. 1867Argyll Reign of Law i. 34 In many animal frames there are what have been called ‘silent members’, members which have no reference to the life or use of the animal. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 203 A volcano, after being silent for ages, may suddenly start forth into fresh life. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 643 One of the so-called ‘silent’ areas of the brain; for lesions in this situation are not infrequently latent, that is unattended with definite localising symptoms. 1974Nature 1 Feb. 295/2 Enhancing serum as used in series b was then absorbed to remove Ag-B antibodies but possibly not antibodies against (? serologically silent) products of other genes in the MHC, if such exist. 1979Ibid. 5 July 12/3 The recessive scrapie allele is likely to be widespread but clinically ‘silent’ in these breeds.
c. Of distilled spirit: Possessing no flavour.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 405 Well purified or clean spirits, such as the distillers call silent whiskey. Ibid. 1255 A little silent spirit of wine being poured in. 1879Spon's Encycl. Manuf. I. 228 The Irish distillers..assert further that the Scotch produce or ‘silent spirit’ as they agree to term it..possesses no flavour.
d. Med. Not giving rise to or showing readily apparent signs or symptoms.
1928W. Overend Radiogr. of Chest II. iv. 49 There are two forms of silent pneumonia: a hilar which does not reach the pleura; and a cortical which does not reach the hilum. 1951[see latent a. d]. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 171/2 We have had no great disease problem associated with them as yet but I have a feeling that the natural host is often a silent carrier.
6. Comb.
a. With adverbial force, as silent-blessing, silent-falling, silent-gliding, silent-marking, silent-speaking, etc.
c1611Chapman Iliad xv. 35 Thou Flood, whose silent-gliding waues, the vnder ground doth beare. 1728–46Thomson Spring 882 Like silent-working Heaven, surprising oft The lonely heart with unexpected good. 1786Burns Lament ix, Oft has thy silent-marking glance Observ'd us. 1820Keats Lamia ii. 148 Wherefore flout The silent-blessing fate, warm cloister'd hours? 1850Tennyson In Mem. xcv. 26 On the silence broke The silent-speaking words. 1868J. H. Newman Verses Var. Occas. 157, I will..view Each shrivelling stalk and silent-falling leaf.
b. Parasynthetic, as silent-footed, silent-lighted.
1845J. R. Lowell To Future in Graham's Mag. XXVIII. 52 And he can see the grim-eyed Doom From out the trembling gloom Its silent-footed steeds toward his palace goading. 1850Tennyson In Mem. Concl. 112 The silent-lighted town. 1895C. Holland My Japanese Wife 11 A white cat flits ghost-like and silent-footed across the path.
7. Special collocations: silent band = silent majority (b) below; silent cop (Austral.) (see quot. 1934); silent (dog) whistle, a high-frequency whistle producing a note audible to a dog but scarcely audible to a human being; silent heat (Vet.), ovulation occurring without the signs of œstrus; † silent highway, a river or canal (obs.); Silent Land, used allusively to denote the state beyond this life; silent majority, (a) the dead; (b) the mass of people whose views remain unexpressed, esp. in political contexts; those who are usu. overlooked because of their moderation; silent partner (U.S.) = sleeping partner s.v. sleeping ppl. a. 5 a; silent policeman (N.Z.) = silent cop above; silent service (see quot. 1929); silent spring, in allusion to the title of the work by R. Carson (see quot. 1962), which drew attention to the danger to the natural environment inherent in the use of toxic chemicals; silent vote (U.S.), the vote of those whose political leanings are not known in advance of their vote being cast; so silent voter.
1866G. Meredith Let. 15 Jan. (1970) I. 326 Will bawlings in the street avail?.. They irritate the slumbering dominant party, without strengthening the insurgent. What is being done in the Fortnightly, for instance..does strengthen, while it increases the silent band.
1934T. Wood Cobbers x. 122 A circle in the middle of cross-roads, for example, round which all traffic changing direction must swing; a round yellow blob, known here [sc. in Adelaide] as the Silent Cop, or the Poached Egg. 1959D. Hewitt Bobbin Up 2 This was the corner, by the silent cop, where she and Roy had come to grief.
1961C. Willock Death in Covert iv. 64 Attached..to the lapel of Gumbe-Howard's coat was a silent dog whistle, and attached..to his heels was a silent dog. 1965D. Francis For Kicks xiii. 173 That's a silent whistle... For dogs... You can't hear it very well..but of course a dog can. 1980J. W. Hill Intermediate Physics xvi. 150 The ‘silent’ dog whistle produces a note too high for the human ear but heard by a dog.
1950N. Barron Dairy Farmer's Vet. Bk. vi. 65 Cows sometimes have short and possibly ‘silent’ heats that pass unnoticed, when the ovary produces the egg but the cow does not show any outward sign of being in season. 1970W. H. Parker Health & Dis. Farm Animals vi. 58 The cow tends to be more generous with her signs of oestrus unless she is on a low plane of nutrition, when she may have a ‘silent heat’ like the ewe.
1848Punch XV. 158/1 New towns have lately sprung up..on each side of the Thames. If the population manages to keep pace with the mania for building, the ‘silent highway’ will soon become as noisy as the New Cut. 1875Birmingham Daily Mail 5 Mar. 2/5, I speculate on the incalculable good that a ‘Home’ would do in rescuing girl-babies of the silent highway from the unwomanly scenes of their wasted young lives. 1935Times 28 Feb. 14/2 This Cinderella of the bridges that span London's silent highway.
1853Working Man's Way in World xiv. 320 (heading) Parents and friends in the Silent Land. 1939L. M. Montgomery Anne of Ingleside xxvii. 186 Ah well, Anne dearie, they've both passed long since into the Silent Land.
1874Harper's New Monthly Mag. Sept. 468 (heading) The silent majority. 1910Motor World 31 Mar. 851/1 (heading) Two join the ‘silent majority’. Death calls at Detroit and Buffalo and claims well known men. 1955C. V. Wedgwood Great Rebellion I. ii. iv. 256 The King in his natural optimism still believed that a silent majority in Scotland were in his favour. 1970Guardian 11 May 10/2 The Midwest..is ‘silent majority’ country. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 1 May b4/4 Two-thirds of all marriages in the United States still succeed. So often silent majorities of this kind are too readily forgotten.
1828–32Webster s.v., A silent partner in a commercial house. 1894S. Leavitt Our Money Wars 221 His Wall St. concern..came to grief in 1890; also a concern in Buffalo in which he was a silent partner. 1974R. L. Simon Wild Turkey xii. 82 They're only the directors. There's someone behind them. Another investor... It's a silent partner.
1965F. Sargeson Memoirs of Peon iv. 88 A silent policeman had been prised from its street-moorings.
1929Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 323/2 Silent Service, the Navy. This is a reference to the long silent vigil of the British Fleet. 1937T. Rattigan French without Tears i. 40 You naval people never talk about yourselves, do you? Rogers. Well, you know, silent service and all that. 1982Daily Tel. 2 June 16/3 The Army learned certain lessons in Northern Ireland. The silent service did not share that experience.
1962R. Carson (title) Silent spring. 1970N.Y. Times 12 June 38 The Caspian Sea is probably the most dramatic battle-ground of Soviet Russia's looming silent spring and to date this battle is being lost to oil, petroleum products, industrial and city sewage, ballast and waste from ships. Ibid. 27 June 28 If we don't develop suitable pesticides—and use them—we really will have Silent Spring because there won't be any trees left for the birds to sing in. 1981J. Sutherland Bestsellers x. 112 Guilt about man's depredation of his and other species' environment, at the ‘silent spring’ which he has brought.
1936Durant (Okla.) Daily Democrat 2 Nov. 2/4 The regents and police pensions amendments have the best chances of carrying, but even they are endangered by the ‘silent vote’. 1952Economist 6 Sept. 556/1 It is believed that there will be a substantial ‘silent’ vote against Mr. McCarthy by other citizens unwilling or unable to take a public stand against him.
1884Judge 12 Nov. 140/2 To the Silent Voter, who was to make himself Felt for Cleveland: Tell me where you are and all will be forgiven.
B. n.
†1. The time of silence. Obs.—1
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iv. 19 Deepe Night, darke Night, the silent of the Night.
2. A device by which a clock or alarm may be prevented from striking or acting.
1834–6Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 634/1 The three-armed piece s t u, which is called the strike or silent. 1871R. S. Culley Pract. Telegr. (ed. 5) 228 A switch of this kind attached to an alarum is called a ‘silent’.
3. A silent film (see sense 3 e of the adj.).
1929Morning Post 24 May 12/7 Every recognised tradition of the ‘silents’ seems to have gone by the board. 1977‘J. le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy xvii. 404 Even the latest films up here are silents.
▸ Genetics. Of a mutation: having no effect on the phenotype; spec. not resulting in a change in the amino acids encoded.
1964Amer. Naturalist 98 245 If the unknown frequency of silent mutations is ignored, perhaps it is safe to say that most mutations..lead to non-participating or useless proteins. 1973A. Alland Evol. Human Behavior (ed. 2) iii. 101 The analysis of hemoglobin has revealed several silent mutations. 1982Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79 1233/2 Seven of the 12 mutations are in noncoding regions, and 2 of the 5 mutations in coding sequences are silent. 1997Science 3 Oct. 106/1 The individual bases..were altered to convert the Cys codons at positions 177 and 180 to Ala codons (and..the silent mutations..were introduced to create an Mlu I site). |