stone dead
adjEtymology From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone + dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc.
1
Idiomatic Utterly 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, →OCLC:
- [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:
- Related terms
- dead