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.
‘He thinks nothing of spending $40K on a new car’: My husband gives me the silent treatment.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 9, 2025
About times he’d argued with his wife and given her the silent treatment.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 20, 2025
He did not want to speak after Saturday's round, but he did and in so doing broke his silent treatment of the media.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2025
“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
For most of my childhood, my sister brought me to hysterics from fights and days of the silent treatment.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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.
