"dead silence" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead silences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "dead silence (usually uncountable, plural dead silences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Silence",
          "orig": "en:Silence",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              102,
              114
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              94
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              212,
              224
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1959, Margaret Leech, “Appointment at Buffalo”, in In the Days of McKinley, New York: Harper & Brothers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 595:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A particularly notable/awkward silence or absence of response."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead_silence-en-noun-bssTiqbY",
      "links": [
        [
          "notable",
          "notable"
        ],
        [
          "awkward",
          "awkward"
        ],
        [
          "absence",
          "absence"
        ],
        [
          "response",
          "response"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A particularly notable/awkward silence or absence of response."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "crickets"
        },
        {
          "word": "pregnant pause"
        },
        {
          "word": "tumbleweed moment"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "deafening silence"
        },
        {
          "word": "dead quiet"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "notable silence",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "silence de plomb"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "notable silence",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "silence de mort"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "notable silence",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "silence assourdissant"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "notable silence",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "silence de tombe"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead silence"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead silences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "dead silence (usually uncountable, plural dead silences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "crickets"
    },
    {
      "word": "pregnant pause"
    },
    {
      "word": "tumbleweed moment"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "en:Silence"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              102,
              114
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              94
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              212,
              224
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1959, Margaret Leech, “Appointment at Buffalo”, in In the Days of McKinley, New York: Harper & Brothers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 595:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A particularly notable/awkward silence or absence of response."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "notable",
          "notable"
        ],
        [
          "awkward",
          "awkward"
        ],
        [
          "absence",
          "absence"
        ],
        [
          "response",
          "response"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A particularly notable/awkward silence or absence of response."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "deafening silence"
        },
        {
          "word": "dead quiet"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "notable silence",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "silence de plomb"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "notable silence",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "silence de mort"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "notable silence",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "silence assourdissant"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "notable silence",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "silence de tombe"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead silence"
}