tacit, a.
(ˈtæsɪt)
Also 7–8 tacite.
[ad. L. tacit-us, pa. pple. of tacēre to be silent. Cf. F. tacite (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Unspoken, unvoiced; silent, emitting no sound; noiseless, wordless.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. i. §1 Without the interruption of tacite obiections. 1628 Sir R. Le Grys tr. Barclay's Argenis 73 With a tacit vpbraiding she put them in mind. 1798 Landor Gebir ii. 238 With a long and tacit step..He looked and tottered on a black abyss. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 113 A tacit thankfulness in his looks, as if he felt grateful to me. 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. xviii. 329 One of those tacit prayers to which no language can give adequate expression. |
b. Saying nothing; still, silent.
| 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Tacite, still, silent, saying nothing. 1651 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. xv. §3. 238 Gods lawes are declar'd after a threefold manner: first, by the tacit dictates of Right reason, next by immediate revelation [etc.]. 1804 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1837) III. 497 If the British Government had remained..a tacit spectator of events. 1866 Carlyle Remin., Irving (1881) I. 221 Edward Strachey was..a man rather tacit than discursive. |
2. Not openly expressed or stated, but implied; understood, inferred. tacit mortgage, a lien in the nature of a mortgage created by operation of law. tacit relocation: see relocation.
| [c 1575 Balfour's Practicks (1754) 208 Tacita relocatio.] 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 251 This tacite approveing of these commissioners, men so highlie guiltie,..argues a great decay of zeall, and courage. 1681 Stair Instit. Law Scot. i. x. §61. 149 In the tacite legal hypothecation, [our custom] hath only allowed a few. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iii. ii. §8 Common use, by a tacit Consent, appropriates certain Sounds to certain Ideas in all Languages. 1705 Addison Italy, Monaca (1733) 23 A tacit Acknowledgment that Monarchy is the more honourable. 1881 Spectator 30 Apr. 573 Locke's doctrine of a tacit social compact. |