Word.ws English Dictionary

preaching to deaf ears

preaching to deaf ears is the present participle and gerund 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 preaching to deaf ears

What is preaching to deaf ears the present participle and gerund of?
Preaching to deaf ears is the present participle and gerund of preach to deaf ears.

Words near preaching to deaf ears in the dictionary

  1. preaching down
  2. preaching friar
  3. preaching friars
  4. preaching in the desert
  5. preaching tabs
  6. preaching to deaf ears
  7. preaching to the choir
  8. preaching to the congregation
  9. preaching to the converted
  10. preaching up
  11. preaching water and drinking wine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preaching 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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