taciturnity

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Reserve in speaking

Nouns

1. taciturnity, uncommunicativeness, reticence, reserve, closeness, curtness; silence, muteness, pauciloquy, laconicism; secrecy, concealment.

2. man or woman of few words, mouse. Slang, oyster, clam.

Verbs — be taciturn or silent, keep silence, not speak, say nothing; hold or put a bridle on one's tongue, hold one's peace, bottle up, seal the lips, close the mouth, keep one's tongue between one's teeth, lose one's tongue, lay a finger on the lips, not let a word escape one, make no sign, keep a secret, not have a word to say, cat's got one's tongue. Slang, pipe down, clam up.

Adjectives — taciturn, uncommunicative, reticent, reserved, close, close-mouthed or -tongued, tight-lipped, short-spoken, unconversable, unsociable, short, curt, laconic, sparing of words, mousy; silent, still, mute, speechless; pauciloquent, concise, terse, sententious; secretive.

Quotations — Men of few words are the best men (Shakespeare), Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent (Ludwig Wittgenstein), Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact (George Eliot).

Antonyms, see loquacity.

II

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun The keeping of one's thoughts and emotions to oneself: control, reserve, restraint, reticence, self-control, self-restraint, uncommunicativeness. See RESTRAINT.