Meaning
Of words, requests or warnings: to be ignored or to receive no sympathetic hearing. The grammatical subject is normally the plea or suggestion, not the listener. Note that Merriam-Webster flags the phrase as sometimes offensive, since it equates deafness with refusal to listen. Neutral to slightly negative tone; often used about ignored appeals, and best avoided where sensitivity to disability matters. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of this exact wording to 1838. It belongs to an older family of expressions: the OED documents 'turn a deaf ear', meaning deliberately to refuse to listen, from the early seventeenth century, with a citation dated 1620, and by the end of the seventeenth century deaf ears were being paired with blind eyes. The image is transparent, words aimed at ears that will not hear them go unheeded, so no colourful derivation is claimed for it. What is documented is a drift in construction: the older formulation put a wilfully deaf listener at the centre ('turn a deaf ear'), while the newer one makes the words themselves fall unanswered. The sensitivity note is recent and attaches to the whole 'deaf' family rather than to this phrase alone.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- fall upon deaf ears
Usage Examples
- Residents' complaints about the crossing fell on deaf ears for years before the council acted.
- His warnings about the backup schedule seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
- Further appeals for funding would probably fall on deaf ears after two rejections.