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stone-deaf
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stone deaf
stone deafTotally unable to hear, as in Poor Grandpa, in the last year he's become stone deaf. [First half of 1800s]
stone-deaf
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
Use of this word to refer to people with serious hearing difficulties is potentially very offensive: preferred form: profoundly deaf
Etymology
Origin of stone-deaf
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Her dam, Home by Dark, had never raced and was stone-deaf to boot.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Although Mrs. Moore recovered, her fever left her stone-deaf.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Nearing 83, he is stone-deaf, inclined to doze off in the middle of important conversations.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In stone-deaf Lady Strickland's Maltese garden a land mine blew the tail feathers off her prize peacock, blew Lady Strickland off her feet.
From Time Magazine Archive
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He, who was formerly stone-deaf, had gone one day to see Schlatter at Omaha, and when the latter took his hand his deafness had completely disappeared.
From Modern Saints and Seers by Evan Marrett
It was to this latter, more radical aspect that the mass media were stone deaf.
From Salon ● May 4, 2020
Earlier this month, Daltrey told the Daily Mail that "Pete is almost stone deaf".
From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2011
The chance comes when Haas goes stone deaf.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The shepherd won the crowd, but Judge Hartman, ignoring the applause as though he were stone deaf, went on with his work.
From Time Magazine Archive
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You would have to be stone deaf to sleep through it even in a feather bed.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.