They know they will face either a swift backlash or deafening silence.
Internet chatter rose to a deafening roar as speculation began about what—plastic surgery?
Any upcoming release of a new Apple product guarantees a deafening cacophony of idle speculation from tech sites.
He joked about the deafening noise levels in the old C-130 transport planes and sex at his age, then approaching 60.
Then a deafening cheer, as 50,000 people realized at once we had just experienced a major earthquake.
Why do you make such a deafening noise, you pussy cat, there behind the stove?
It was Beauvallet, the deafening tragedian of the Comdie Franaise.
The roar of the wind and the surging of water were all around, and were deafening.
The deafening noises of the faubourg sounded like bells in their ears.
When the last battalions came in sight the uproar was deafening.
"very loud," 1590s, from present participle of deafen (q.v.). Deafening silence is attested by 1830.
1590s, "to make deaf," from deaf + -en (1). The earlier verb was simply deaf (mid-15c.). For "to become deaf, to grow deaf," Old English had adeafian (intransitive), which survived into Middle English as deave but then took on a transitive sense from mid-14c. and sank from use except in dialects (where it mostly has transitive and figurative senses), leaving English without an intransitive verb here.
deafen deaf·en (děf'ən)
v. deaf·ened, deaf·en·ing, deaf·ens
To make deaf, especially momentarily by a loud noise.
