a. 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. Le Grys, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, 73. With a tacit vpbraiding she put them in mind, that they were acquainted with.
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 April, 573. Locke’s doctrine of a tacit social compact.
