Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Deaf
Deaf as a post.
—Anonymous
As deaf as a beetle.
—Anonymous
As deaf as a white cat.
—Anonymous
Deaf as a door.
—Nicholas Breton
Deaf as any tradesman’s dummy.
—Thomas Hood
Deaf as a nail—that you cannot hammer a meaning into.
—Thomas Hood
She was deaf as a nut—for nuts, no doubt,
Are deaf to the grub that’s hollowing out.
—Thomas Hood
Deaf as a stone—say one of the stones
Demosthenes sucked to improve his tones;
And surely deafness no further could reach
Than to be in his mouth without hearing his speech.
—Thomas Hood
Deaf as bricks.
—Thomas Hood
Deaf as God and Magog.
—Thomas Hood
Deaf as Pharaoh’s mother’s mother’s mummy.
—Thomas Hood
As deaf, alas! as the dead and forgotten—
(Gray has noticed the waste of breath,
In addressing the “dull, cold ear of death”).Thomas Hood
Deaf as the still-born figures of Madame Tussaud,
With their eyes of glass, and their hair of flax,
That only stare whatever you “ax,”
For their ears, you know, are nothing but wax.
—Thomas Hood
Deafe as an adder.
—Ben Jonson
Deaf as winds when seamen pray.
—Lee
Deaf as the billows.
—Ovid
As deaf as Ailsa Craig.
—Scottish Proverb
Deaf as the sea.
—William Shakespeare
Deaf as a shad.
—Sam Slick
Deaf as fire.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
More deaf than trees.
—Edmund Waller