dead silence

plural dead silences

1. idiomaticuncountableusuallyA particularly distinct or awkward silence or absence of response.

   The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.

   1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IX, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 193

   2 more examples

   A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with Venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar.

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 199

   At seven minutes past four, while a Bach sonata was purling under the din of the crowd, the President's reaching hand was struck aside, and a man lurched forward. Two shots cracked sharply. There was a moment of dead silence.

   1959, Margaret Leech, “Appointment at Buffalo”, in In the Days of McKinley, New York: Harper & Brothers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 595

   Synonyms: deafening silence, dead quiet