stone-deaf
1
6.7
Unable to hear anything at all
- adjective
- /stoʊn dɛf/
:
sordo total
- I was trained to be a good listener, but, you see, I've become stone deaf, and my hat's not entirely reliable.
Examples
-
Korben apes playing pool, but Baby Ray really is stone-deaf.
Fiction book (1997) -
He's stone deaf.
-
He's not gonna get much out of this concert; he's stone-deaf!
Fiction book (1997) -
Many elderly people are stone-deaf and rely on hearing aids.
-
After years of loud music, she found herself stone-deaf in her old age.
-
The doctor confirmed that he was stone-deaf and would never hear again.
Synonyms
deaf
vsstone-deaf
212
1.0
Not able to hear, completely or partly
is limited to total lack of hearing, not partial loss
2
3.9
Cannot hear at all
is the general word for being completely unable to hear
2
8.6
Unable to hear anything at all
is the literal statement of total inability rather than an image
8.2
Not able to hear anything
is a more emphatic phrasing of the same total inability
7.7
Completely unable to hear or accept advice
is strictly the literal state of complete inability to hear
How Deaf
Surface Forms
stone-deaf positive
Morphology
Etymology
Stone-deaf joins stone, meaning a hard rock, and deaf, which means 'cannot hear'. The stone part is used to mean 'completely', as in stone-cold, so the image is of someone as silent to sound as a rock, and stone-deaf means completely unable to hear.