fall on deaf ears

1. Be ignored or disregarded, as in Any advice we give them about remodeling seems to fall on deaf ears. This expression transfers physical inability to hear to someone who does not want to listen. [1400s] Also see turn a deaf ear.

Example Sentences

But Okamura's call for Ukrainian refugees to be deported en masse will likely fall on deaf ears.

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Bonhoeffer, a German anti-fascist who died for his heroism in 1945, described the characteristics of stupidity this way: “reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed… and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential.”

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When wrong things are being done before your eyes, when you’re an unwilling or unwitting participant, when your complaints through internal channels fall on deaf ears and when the agency itself is part of the problem, then a free, independent press and Congress are legally recognized ways to blow the whistle.

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But what if they fall on deaf ears?

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Even a wealthy landowner can come off like a victim here, as is the case with Tadeu, a businessman who in the 1990s started an ecological sanctuary on his 28,000 hectares, and whose complaints to the Brazilian government about illegal encroachment on his land fall on deaf ears.

Read more on Los Angeles Times