(adjective) If you are unable to hear, this is an example of a time when you are described as deaf. ‘It seems it's still easier to see me as a Machiavellian force preventing her from communicating with her friends than to accept that she's deaf as a post and increasingly anti-social.’ ‘Now I live with a woman who is not only deaf as a post but, as a result of her stroke, has short-term memory loss.’ Synonyms: hard of hearing, without hearing, stone deaf, deaf as a post [informal] More Synonyms of deaf The deaf are people who are deaf. ‘Posts’ (as in fence posts) have no ears and would be conceivably hard of hearing. Cambridge Dictionary +Plus; My profile +Plus help; Log out; Dictionary . Deaf as a post: Someone who is as deaf as a post is unable to hear at all. deaf as a doorpost (English)Adjective (simile) stone deaf (unable to hear at all)2003, David Farland, The Lair of Bones, Macmillan, page 203 : And grandmother sat in her rocker before the fireplace, deaf as a doorpost and half-blind as well. English; Learner’s Dictionary; Essential British English; Essential American English; Translations. ‘Posts’ (as in fence posts) have no ears and would be conceivably hard of hearing. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. ‘This was always something of a drama as he'd become as deaf as a post and would stand in the hall shouting into the phone, ‘Hello?’’ ‘She's a guest they have on Countdown who's as deaf as a post.’ ‘The teacher, ‘Harry’ Harrison was about ninety years old and was as deaf as a post.’ Unable to hear or to listen, as in Speak louder, Grandpa's deaf as a post. But there are a lot of things that don’t have ears, yet this particular word has seem to stick through its lineage. unable to speak) as a fish / doornail; See List of AS...AS Similes. Entries with "deaf as a post" stone deaf: see also stone-deaf stone deaf (English) Adjective stone deaf (not comparable) (idiomatic) Utterly deaf.Years of working under such noisy conditions ultimately left him… como una tapia: como una tapia (Spanish) Origin & history Literally, "like a[n] [adobe] wall" Adjective como una tapia (idiomatic) deaf as a post The OED does record “deaf as a doornail”, but it isn’t common. The phrase deaf as an adder, meaning wilfully unhearing, is first recorded in Eastward Hoe (London, 1605), a comedy by the English poets and playwrights George Chapman (circa 1560-1634), Ben Jonson (circa 1573-1637) and John Marston (1576-1634): When the Sessions come, they shall heare from me. Synonyms for deaf as a post include deaf as a doorknob, deaf as a doornail, deaf as a doorpost, stone deaf, hard of hearing, hearing-impaired, unable to hear, deaf, profoundly deaf and deafened.