Her voice scaled up to just short of a shriek, and she was abruptly silent.

Realizing that his words could be misinterpreted, the dead woman's husband was abruptly silent.

Something outside the car made a noise that sounded like un- clank-and then everything was abruptly silent.

A deafening scream filled the glen; the crowd was abruptly silent.

Before he had reached the foot of the slope, the people around him fell abruptly silent and stood where they were, staring upward.

As though a switch has been thrown, the students go abruptly silent.

The room fell abruptly silent as everyone turned to confront the person who appeared to find this observation diverting.

He lifted the sword, eyeing the abruptly silent men chained to the tree.

The engine went abruptly silent then and the sailboat slid under the black water.

And then the warden fell abruptly silent, having just got a dirty look from the Master of the Games.