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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
taciturn
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ It was unlike her to be so taciturn - she must have had something on her mind.
▪ It was unlike her to be so taciturn.
▪ The ship's captain was a taciturn man who spoke only to give orders.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I tried to make polite small talk with him although he seemed distinctly taciturn, if not downright moody.
▪ She was taciturn and almost melancholic; her parents had raised her on stories of hardship.
▪ The Raika were in trouble and when it came to articulating their misfortunes these normally taciturn men became eloquent.
▪ They were met at the door by a mercifully taciturn priest, who escorted them without fuss to their quarters.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Taciturn

Taciturn \Tac"i*turn\, a. [L. taciturnus: cf. F. taciturne. See Tacit.] Habitually silent; not given to converse; not apt to talk or speak. -- Tac"i*turn*ly, adv.

Syn: Silent; reserved.

Usage: Taciturn, Silent. Silent has reference to the act; taciturn, to the habit. A man may be silent from circumstances; he is taciturn from disposition. The loquacious man is at times silent; one who is taciturn may now and then make an effort at conversation.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
taciturn

"habitually silent," 1771, back-formation from taciturnity, or from French taciturne (15c.), from Latin taciturnus "not talkative, noiseless."

Wiktionary
taciturn

a. silent; temperamentally untalkative; disinclined to speak.

WordNet
taciturn

adj. habitually reserved and uncommunicative [ant: voluble]

Wikipedia
Taciturn

Taciturn or Taciturnity may refer to:

  • HMS Taciturn (P314), a British submarine of the third group of the T class
  • Silence
  • Abandonment (legal) (known as taciturnity in Scots law), failure to assert a legal right in a way that implies abandonment of the right
  • William the Silent (also known as William the Taciturn), leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs that set off the Eighty Years' War

Usage examples of "taciturn".

The old baker, always gloomy and taciturn, was awake and all alone in his bakehouse, beginning his work in order to forget his worries.

The officer was a taciturn Spaniard who did not even condescend to honour me with an answer, when I told him that I had money and would like to have someone to wait on me.

The driver, a taciturn android who could be trusted never to speak of his mission, bent his lips into an expression of perfect nonhearing as Dack presented Jay Donnerjack his overnight bag, an eft stick, and much advice.

He obeyed with cheerfulness, and was taken in charge by Morris, who, having passed on Iberville and Gering to the drawing-room, was once more at his post, taciturn as ever.

Jay Kalam habitually taciturn, Hal Samdu, slow with words, Giles Habibula overly cautious.

Master Kinch, leathery-faced and taciturn, shouted back a few words each time, around the pipe in his teeth.

Davichaux expected it to be the taciturn Kentuckian, Nate Ruell, behind the wheel, with a couple of sec men riding shotgun.

Characteristically, the taciturn young man said nothing, his silence implying that he had planned this out with Simkin long beforehand.

Rochester took breakfast with us in a gloomy old dressing-room, moody and taciturn, unpacified by sleep.

William Breen Markland, the odd one, named for their Irish grandfather, and like that taciturn, obdurate old man always a nonconformist, an objector, full of booklore, aloof and stiffened with stubborn opinions.

Tommy Hoylake drove up from his home in Berkshire to ride Pease Pudding, and we put Andy on Archangel and a taciturn lad called Faddy on the chestnut Subito.

I remember how I, invariably so taciturn, suddenly fastened upon Zverkov, when one day talking at a leisure moment with his schoolfellows of his future relations with the fair sex, and growing as sportive as a puppy in the sun, he all at once declared that he would not leave a single village girl on his estate unnoticed, that that was his DROIT DE SEIGNEUR, and that if the peasants dared to protest he would have them all flogged and double the tax on them, the bearded rascals.

Being taciturn and undemonstrative, she stood at the door, looking with as pleased a countenance as so sad a portrait could wear upon the young gentleman.

William Breen Markland, the odd one, named for their Irish grandfather, and like that taciturn, obdurate old man always a nonconformist, an objector, full of booklore, aloof and stiffened with stubborn opinions.

Ken did not wonder at the wordshe had already come to regard Feth as a taciturn personality.