BE QUIET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does be quiet mean? 

• BE QUIET (verb)
  The verb BE QUIET has 1 sense:

1. refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

  Familiarity information: BE QUIET used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BE QUIET (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Refuse to talk or stop talking; fall silent

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

be quiet; belt up; button up; clam up; close up; dummy up; keep mum; shut up

Context example:

The children shut up when their father approached

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said:—I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait-waistcoat.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Be quiet, my child, said the old woman, and you shall have it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It does seem pleasant to be quiet, and not have company manners on all the time.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I would be quiet if he liked, and as to talking rationally, I flattered myself I was doing that now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mr. Weston must be quiet, and every thing deliberately arranged.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They may be quiet and shy and have trouble fitting in.

(Klinefelter's Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

Girls should be quiet and modest.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Even then he couldn't be quiet, but was always writing us letters; and wanted so much to see Dora before he went away, that Dora went to visit him, and fainted when she found herself inside the iron bars.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is an excellent plan to have some place where we can go to be quiet, when things vex or grieve us.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Would I be quiet and talk rationally?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)