1.
[syn: reserve, reticence, taciturnity]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Reticence \Ret"i*cence\, n. [L. reticentia: cf. F.
r['e]ticence.]
1. The quality or state of being reticent, or keeping
silence; the state of holding one's tonque; refraining to
speak of that which is suggested; uncommunicativeness.
[1913 Webster]
Such fine reserve and noble reticence. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Rhet.) A figure by which a person really speaks of a
thing while he makes a show as if he would say nothingon
the subject.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
reticence
n 1: the trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering
anything more than necessary [syn: reserve, reticence,
taciturnity]