preach to deaf ears
preach to deaf ears verb: to attempt to persuade a party that does not wish to listen or cannot be altered in its conviction.
Verb
preach to deaf ears (third-person singular simple present preaches to deaf ears, present participle preaching to deaf ears, simple past and past participle preached to deaf ears)
- To attempt to persuade a party that does not wish to listen or cannot be altered in its conviction.
- Roosevelt was tired of preaching to deaf ears. He was ready to try something else.2002, Edward M. Bennet, Separated by a Common Language: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Anglo-American Relations, 1933-1939, Writers Club Press, →ISBN, page 126
- Synonyms:
- like talking to a wall
Synonyms of preach to deaf ears
Forms of preach to deaf ears
| third-person singular present | preaches to deaf ears |
|---|---|
| present participle | preaching to deaf ears |
| past participle | preached to deaf ears |
| past | preached to deaf ears |
Questions about preach to deaf ears
- What does preach to deaf ears mean?
- Preach to deaf ears means to attempt to persuade a party that does not wish to listen or cannot be altered in its conviction.
- What part of speech is preach to deaf ears?
- Preach to deaf ears is a verb.
- What is the past tense of preach to deaf ears?
- The past tense of preach to deaf ears is preached to deaf ears.
Words near preach to deaf ears in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: preach to deaf ears (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-preach to deaf ears.ogg.
Cite this entry: “preach to deaf ears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preach_to_deaf_ears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.