reticence Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun the trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary
taciturnity; reserve.

L. reticentia: cf. F. réticence.

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.
Such fine reserve and noble reticence. Tennyson.
(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.