deaf as a post
2
8.6
- idiom
- UK
:
sordo como una tapia
- The elderly man is deaf as a post, not hearing the music playing around him.
Examples
-
Fact of the matter is, I'm deaf as a post.
-
By that time he was as deaf as a post.
-
"You, of all people, should be aware of the fact that I'm deaf as a post," she said.
Fiction book (1997) -
He's as deaf as a post.
-
He's deaf as a post, sir.
-
After the accident, she became deaf as a post and couldn't hear a thing.
-
With his hearing loss, he now feels deaf as a post during conversations.
Synonyms
212
1.0
Not able to hear, completely or partly
2
3.9
Cannot hear at all
1
6.7
Unable to hear anything at all
Not able to hear anything
Antonyms
How Deaf
Surface Forms
Morphology
The simile structure 'deaf as a ...' transparently signals a strong degree of deafness, and a learner who knows 'deaf', 'as', 'a' and 'post' (an inanimate wooden stake) can plausibly infer that the phrase means completely unable to hear. However, the specific choice of 'post' is somewhat conventional and arbitrary rather than logically necessitated, so the exact idiomatic force is partly unpredictable without exposure.
Etymology
Deaf as a post compares a person to a wooden post, which is still and cannot hear. So saying someone is deaf as a post means they are 'completely deaf' or simply not listening.