Meanings
alternative stone-dead
- idiomaticUtterly dead.
'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.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC1 more example
[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.
1969, Monty Python, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, in Dead Parrot sketch
Origin
- Middle Englishstone-dede
- Englishstone dead
From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone + dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans morsdood
- morsdoodunquestionably dead
Danish stendød
- stendødunquestionably dead
Dutch morsdood
- morsdoodunquestionably dead
French raide mort
- raide mortunquestionably dead
German mausetot
- mausetotunquestionably dead
Icelandic steindauður
- steindauðurunquestionably dead
Irish chomh marbh le hart
- chomh marbh le hartunquestionably dead
Norwegian Bokmål steindød
- steindødunquestionably dead
Russian мертвее мёртвого
- мертвее мёртвого (mertveje mjórtvovo)unquestionably dead
Swedish stendöd
- stendödunquestionably dead
Cite this entry
stone dead. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stone%20dead
“stone dead.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stone%20dead. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stone dead,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stone%20dead.
Source: stone dead on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.