silent treatment
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of silent treatment
First recorded in 1945–50
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“For a day or two, she’d give us the silent treatment, and then we’d all fall back into the form of a life trying to make ends meet,” he wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2026
He’s used to giving me the silent treatment whenever there is conflict and he’s improved, but there is still a huge divide between what we have and what I, and most people, think is healthy.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2025
"I was on probation, I didn't know this person. I thought he might make my life hard at work, that he might give me the silent treatment," she said.
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2024
“I’m not really understanding what the silent treatment is,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher told The Associated Press last week.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 29, 2023
I decide to continue giving him the silent treatment.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
