deaf as a post

Idioms  

1. Also, deaf as an adder. Unable to hear or to listen, as in Speak louder, Grandpa's deaf as a post. The first simile has its origin in John Palsgrave's Acolastus (1540): “How deaf an ear I intended to give him ... he were as good to tell his tale to a post.” It has largely replaced deaf as an adder, alluding to an ancient belief that adders cannot hear; it is recorded in the Bible (Psalms 58:3–5).

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deaf as a post

Father has a friend, a man in his mid-seventies named Mr. Dreher, who’s sick, poor and deaf as a post.

From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

He was as deaf as a post, but he had a cutting wit.

From An Onlooker in France 1917-1919 by Sir William Orpen

The entire army must have become as deaf as a post.

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 by John Wilson

But since the country has been ower-run by thae Hielanders an’ sodgers, they’ve had little peace, and the auld man has gie’n them a heap o’ trouble, for he’s as deaf as a post.

From Hunted and Harried by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

"Slightly deaf," his father called him, but he grew worse instead of better, and threatened to become as deaf as a post or a beetle in time.

From Humorous Readings and Recitations In prose and verse by Various

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