"blue wall of silence" meaning in English

See blue wall of silence in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-blue wall of silence.ogg [Australia] Forms: blue walls of silence [plural]
Etymology: In reference to blue police uniforms. Head templates: {{en-noun|blue walls of silence|head=blue wall of silence}} blue wall of silence (plural blue walls of silence)
  1. (idiomatic) Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a police force with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable police actions. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Law enforcement Synonyms: blue code, blue code of silence, blue wall Related terms: wall of silence

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for blue wall of silence meaning in English (3.7kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "In reference to blue police uniforms.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blue walls of silence",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law enforcement",
          "orig": "en:Law enforcement",
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            "Emergency services",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985 June 25, Sydney H. Schanberg, “New York: The Concrete Wall of Silence”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "We've all heard of the Blue Wall of Silence, the code under which cops stay mum about rogue cops who poison the barrel.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999 May 25, Frank Pellegrini, “Too Despicable for the Blue Wall of Silence”, in Time",
          "text": "When the blue wall of silence broke, it was all over for New York City police officer Justin Volpe. The witnesses for the prosecution had badges, and they had stories to tell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 15, Brandt Williams, Elizabeth Stawicki, “Minneapolis cop indicted on corruption charges”, in Minnesota Public Radio, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "The indictment of officer Michael Roberts also highlights another color barrier that can complicate matters of police discipline—that's the so-called blue wall of silence. Former Minneapolis police officer Mike Quinn says that wall is what keeps some cops from turning in their fellow cops.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 June 6, Donald Winkfield, “Manhattan DA’s Keystone Verdict”, in Black Star News, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "On the streets it is called \"No snitching.\" In law enforcement it is called \"The blue wall of silence\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a police force with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable police actions."
      ],
      "id": "en-blue_wall_of_silence-en-noun-g4fidvlg",
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          "questionable",
          "questionable"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a police force with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable police actions."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "wall of silence"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "blue code"
        },
        {
          "word": "blue code of silence"
        },
        {
          "word": "blue wall"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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      "audio": "en-au-blue wall of silence.ogg",
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      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blue wall of silence"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "In reference to blue police uniforms.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "blue walls of silence",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "wall of silence"
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  ],
  "senses": [
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        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Law enforcement"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985 June 25, Sydney H. Schanberg, “New York: The Concrete Wall of Silence”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "We've all heard of the Blue Wall of Silence, the code under which cops stay mum about rogue cops who poison the barrel.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999 May 25, Frank Pellegrini, “Too Despicable for the Blue Wall of Silence”, in Time",
          "text": "When the blue wall of silence broke, it was all over for New York City police officer Justin Volpe. The witnesses for the prosecution had badges, and they had stories to tell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 July 15, Brandt Williams, Elizabeth Stawicki, “Minneapolis cop indicted on corruption charges”, in Minnesota Public Radio, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "The indictment of officer Michael Roberts also highlights another color barrier that can complicate matters of police discipline—that's the so-called blue wall of silence. Former Minneapolis police officer Mike Quinn says that wall is what keeps some cops from turning in their fellow cops.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 June 6, Donald Winkfield, “Manhattan DA’s Keystone Verdict”, in Black Star News, retrieved 2012-08-12",
          "text": "On the streets it is called \"No snitching.\" In law enforcement it is called \"The blue wall of silence\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a police force with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable police actions."
      ],
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          "strict"
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        ],
        [
          "questionable",
          "questionable"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Strict secretiveness maintained by the members of a police force with respect to information which might be contrary to their interests, especially information concerning questionable police actions."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/db/En-au-blue_wall_of_silence.ogg/En-au-blue_wall_of_silence.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/En-au-blue_wall_of_silence.ogg",
      "tags": [
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "blue code"
    },
    {
      "word": "blue code of silence"
    },
    {
      "word": "blue wall"
    }
  ],
  "word": "blue wall of silence"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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