Meaning of wall of silence | Babel Free

Definitions

Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a group with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable actions by members of the group.

idiomatic

Examples

“[The persecution of homosexuals in the Holocaust is] a fact deliberately buried by history. This homophobic world does not intend⟳ to let⟳ the straight world know⟳ any of the real facts. The wall of silence is deliberate.”

“That makes his struggle⟳ with the culture of omertà, the wall of silence that allowed the Mafia to prevail for decades, all the more poignant.”

“Her parents sought the official report⟳ on the incident, but they have⟳ run⟳ into a wall of silence.”

“2006 Quataert, Donald. "The Massacres of Ottoman Armenians and the Writing of Ottoman History". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 37 (2): 249–259. doi:10.1162/jinh.2006.37.2.249. ISSN 0022-1953. JSTOR 4139548. After the long lapse of serious Ottomanist scholarship on the Armenian question⟳, it now appears that the Ottomanist wall of silence is crumbling.”

“German justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, said Monday that a Vatican secrecy rule⟳ has played a role in a "wall of silence" surrounding sexual abuse of children.”

CEFR level