stone dead

English

Alternative forms

• stone-dead

Etymology

From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone +‎ dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

stone dead

1. (idiomatic) Utterly dead.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     'I congratulate you; it was a lovely shot, and mine were vile.' We got out of the boat and ran to the buck, which was shot through the spine and stone dead.

   • 1969, Monty Python, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, in Dead Parrot sketch:

     [Owner]: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
     [Mr. Praline]: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

Related terms

• Thesaurus:dead

Translations

unquestionably dead

Afrikaans: morsdood (af) Danish: stendød Dutch: morsdood (nl) French: raide mort (fr) German: mausetot (de) Icelandic: steindauður m Irish: chomh marbh le hart Norwegian: Bokmål: steindød Russian: мертвее мёртвого (mertveje mjórtvovo) Swedish: stendöd (sv)