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