Word.ws English Dictionary

preached to deaf ears

preached to deaf ears is the simple past and past participle of preach to deaf ears.

Meaning of preach to deaf ears

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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

Questions about preached to deaf ears

What is preached to deaf ears the simple past and past participle of?
Preached to deaf ears is the simple past and past participle of preach to deaf ears.

Words near preached to deaf ears in the dictionary

  1. preach water and drink wine
  2. preachable
  3. preached
  4. preached down
  5. preached in the desert
  6. preached to deaf ears
  7. preached to the choir
  8. preached to the congregation
  9. preached to the converted
  10. preached up
  11. preached water and drank wine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preached to deaf ears (page history and authors); 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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