reticence

• The youthful love-song in it does not reach the sublime reticence which is in Shakuntalâ and Kumâra-Sambhava_. —  Creative Unity
• Why this reticence, and half-speaking, and apparent indecision? —  Apologia Pro Vita Sua
• She made it very clear that her reticence was for his sake, not for her own Personally I rejoiced in the failure of her frankness. —  We Three
• He made no allusion in his conversation to the numerous campaigns in which he had distinguished himself, and the reason usually given for his reticence was that they dated back to such early Victorian days that he had to sacrifice his military glory at the shrine of his perennial youth Mr. Cecil Brown--to take the names in the chance order in which they appear upon the passenger list--was a young diplomatist from a Continental Embassy, a man slightly tainted with the Oxford manner, and erring upon the side of unnatural and inhuman refinement, but full of interesting talk and cultured thought. —  A Desert Drama Being The Tragedy Of The "Korosko"
• But there was in her speech a certain reticence, as though all the common gossip of life was in her clear spirit received, sifted, purified, and then distributed abroad in chosen portions as goodly and pleasant food. —  Agatha's Husband A Novel

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context