dead silence

dead silence (usually uncountable, plural dead silences)

1. (idiomatic) A particularly notable/awkward silence or absence of response.

   Synonyms: deafening silence, dead quiet

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

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

   • 1959, Margaret Leech, “Appointment at Buffalo”, in In the Days of McKinley‎^[1], New York: Harper & Brothers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 595:

     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.

• crickets
• pregnant pause
• tumbleweed moment