For example, it might happen when someone runs their fingers down a chalkboard, someone suddenly turns on a horn, or radio static comes on at a really loud noise. But ‘piercing’ is sharper, so you’ll often use it when a sharp or even abrasive noise comes out of nowhere. When you piece through silence, it’s the same as cutting through it or breaking it. It’s that feeling when it’s so quiet that you want to put music on or turn the television on in the background to ‘drown out the silence’ with background noise (which is another way to use this conceptual metaphor!) 9. You’ve had too much of it and want to escape it. It’s a negative connotation which implies that the silence is something you don’t want around, and in fact is emotionally effecting you. To be drowning in silence is very similar in meaning to the gnawing metaphor above. Read Also: A List of Dream Metaphors and Idioms 8. Or it might be the silence you feel when your partner dies and you’re sitting at home knowing that if they were still alive you’d be enjoying a lovely chat right now. This might occur when you’re alone on a Saturday night when your friends are all out partying. It’s probably very annoying and getting on your nerves. Similarly, a ‘gnawing’ silence will be constantly on your mind. It’s growling and pulling at you, impeding you from concentrating on anything else. Something that gnaws doesn’t let you forget that it’s there. This sudden lack of noise is the silence cutting through the noise. You can either cut through silence meaning that you have broken it (such as in the train example above), or silence can cut through which means that there was a lot of noise, and then suddenly there’s nothing. Silence Cuts ThroughĬutting through is similar to ‘breaking’ silence. You could say that the arrival of the train ‘broke’ the silence. But then a train passes on train tracks a few hundred meters away and honks its horn. For example, you might be sitting in a rural area where there’s no noise pollution around enjoying the peace. It’s been ‘broken’ by noises of some kind. You might also think about breaking as a machine that stops working properly.īut to say broken silence is to say that it’s come to an end. Broken SilenceĪ literal interpretation of “breaking” is when a physical object literally snaps in half. So, if silence echoes, you might imagine that there are no noises anywhere – as far as you can see and around all the corners and everywhere you look, seems to be perfectly quiet. But when we think about an echo rebounding all over the place we get the sense that there are noises all around us – they’ve gone as far as they can then bounced back to fill all the spaces around. It’s a play-on-words because only noises can echo. The Silence EchoesĪn echoing silence is one that seems to be all over the place. You feel like the silence is just a constant reminder of how lonely you are! 4. You might be feeling lonely and really want someone to talk to, but all you’ve got is your quiet room to keep you company. Of course, only humans can mock you … but to say that you’re being mocked by the silence is to express the sense that it’s inescapable. This is a special type of metaphor that gives human traits to non-human things. To say that you were mocked by silence is to use personification. This metaphor expresses that the silence is a reminder of your loneliness ( see more loneliness metaphors here). To say it’s ‘deafening’ is a clever play-on-words that highlights that even no noise at all can be as powerful to your senses as an extremely loud – even deafening – noise. Here, the silence tells a very clear message. The crowds might go completely silent, and this silence projects a really strong message of their frustration or disappointment. This might be the case, for example, in a basketball game when the home team loses. This metaphor highlights that sometimes you can be hyper-aware of silence and the message it is sending. Similarly, a person who is ‘soaking in silence’ might be trying to get enough of their peace and quiet until they reach a satiation point, after which they can get up and re-engage with the world. Sponges soak up water until they reach saturation point. You might sit there and focus on your appreciation of the peacefulness, or feel your muscles relaxing as the quiet ‘washes over you’.Īnother interpretation is that this metaphor is about a sponge.

Similarly, to ‘soak in’ the silence is to sit there and just quietly enjoy it. Soaking in the water allows you the time to truly enjoy the experience. When you’re sitting in your bath you’re ‘soaking in’ water, feeling it as is laps over your body.

This metaphor relates silence to sitting in a bath. See Also: Silence Symbolism A List of Silence Metaphors, Similes and Idioms 1.

Define radio silence