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Showing results for stone-deaf. Search instead for stonedeaf.
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  • stone-deaf
    stone-deaf
    adjective
    totally deaf.
  • stone deaf
    stone deaf
    Totally unable to hear, as in Poor Grandpa, in the last year he's become stone deaf. [First half of 1800s]
Synonyms

stone-deaf

American  
[stohn-def] / ˈstoʊnˈdɛf /

adjective

  1. totally deaf.


stone-deaf British  

adjective

  1. completely deaf

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

stone deaf Idioms  
  1. Totally unable to hear, as in Poor Grandpa, in the last year he's become stone deaf. [First half of 1800s]


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

First recorded in 1830–40; 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

Although Mrs. Moore recovered, her fever left her stone-deaf.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nearing 83, he is stone-deaf, inclined to doze off in the middle of important conversations.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

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

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

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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