Ret"i*cence (?), n. [L. reticentia: cf. F. r'eticence.]
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.
Such fine reserve and noble reticence.
Tennyson.
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.
© Webster 1913.