(attributive)Describing unwantedsilence and inactivity. Often used of a situation when one makes a statement that is ignored or ill-received by one's audience, as the resultant silence is likened to that of a desolate desert with rolling tumbleweeds.
2000 January 21, Plsntgrn, “Re: SOAR Budget (A Long Guestimate)”, in alt.music.progressive[1]:
Putting an ad in the local paper that Spock's Beard and Arena are in town will get you a tumbleweed response and some wasted revenue.
2005, Trevor Wright, How to Be a Brilliant English Teacher[2], →ISBN, page 68:
“Why do families argue?” may only induce the tumbleweed response. (Could you answer that question out of the blue?)