stone dead
1
5.1
- idiom
- Informal
- The plant looked stone dead after weeks without water.
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Watch on YouTubeNow, one of the things that cortisol does is it stops that stone dead, and you can demonstrate that very clearly.
- Now, one of the things that cortisol does is it stops that stone dead, and you can demonstrate that very clearly.
Examples
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Now, one of the things that cortisol does is it stops that stone dead, and you can demonstrate that very clearly.
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You'll be stone dead in ten seconds.
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By accident, it killed him stone dead.
Fiction book (2000) -
And know in your heart that if anyone stands in your way, I mean anyone, you will kill them, stone dead.
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I'm the one where this man comes out of nowhere and kills you, stone dead.
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It kills it stone dead.
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"Why, he fell stone dead right out of his saddle, that's what!
Fiction book (1990) -
Ernie went to try and help, and all of the sudden the tree ... slipped and fell on him, and killed him, stone dead.
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Killed him stone dead.
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It would blast you through the wall—stone dead in ten seconds, and they'd make me explain it!
Fiction book (1998)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Not alive or working, for example a battery with no power
28
3.4
Not moving and showing no signs of people or animals
1
3.5
A person who is not alive, used in formal or respectful speech
Antonyms
How Dead
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective uses 'stone' as a metaphorical intensifier modifying 'dead', so the meaning 'completely dead' can be linked to 'stone' (hard/immobile) + 'dead' (not alive). This figurative use of 'stone' as an intensifier is not a straightforward compositional pattern for a B1 learner without prior exposure, making the relation partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Stone dead may come from the image of a body as hard and still as a stone, because a stone does not move or feel. That's why the phrase means 'completely dead' or with no sign of life.