stone-deaf

[ stohn-def ]

/ ˈstoʊnˈdɛf /

totally deaf.

Origin of stone-deaf

First recorded in 1830–40; stone + deaf

Poor Miss Wolfe had died some years before, and had been stone-deaf at that!

Old Friends and New |Sarah Orne Jewett
To the one, she played ravishing strains, having first taken the precaution to make him stone-deaf.

Diary of a Pilgrimage |Jerome K. Jerome
I noticed the stone-deaf man, the twisted oaf whose face I have described as being that of an ill-treated and feeble-minded faun.

The Mutiny of the Elsinore |Jack London
I believed him stone-deaf till, on roaring with all the power of my lungs, he answered "Yes."

The Frozen Pirate |W. Clark Russell

John's resources were dried up, and the spectre of want loomed upon him, unbribeable and stone-deaf.

The Growth of a Soul |August Strindberg

stone-deaf

completely deaf

Use of this word to refer to people with serious hearing difficulties is potentially very offensive: preferred form: profoundly deaf