an angel passes

• an angel passes by

an angel passes

1. Used to denote an awkward pause.
   • 1936, Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table, →ISBN, page 17:

     There was a momentary silence. Mrs. Oliver said: "Is it twenty-to or twenty past? An angel passing . . . My feet aren't crossed—it must be a black angel!"

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 4:

     As Case was picking up his beer, one of those strange instants of silence descended, as though a hundred unrelated conversations had simultaneously arrived at the same pause. […] Ratz grunted. “An angel passed.”

• This phrase is not particularly common in English. Its origins possibly lie in Plutarch, referencing the passage of Hermes.

• pregnant pause
• tumbleweed moment
• crickets