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'deaf a door'

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rasc | 17:20 Thu 28th Apr 2005 | Phrases & Sayings
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What is the end of the saying 'deaf as a door ????' we cannot decide between door post, door nail or door door knob? Please help!

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Google gave (by a very narrow margin) most hits for "deaf as a doornail" / "deaf as a door nail". It looks like all three are more or less equally valid.
Also to add further confusion the phrase(s) are also used with deaf being replaced with dead.

'Dead as a doornail' has been in common usage since the 14th Century so I would rule that one out as a candidate for 'deaf as a ...'

http://www.answers.com/dead+as+a+doornail&r=67

From personal experience I remember this as being 'deaf as a post', ie without the door.  Somehow this has become confused with 'dead as a door nail'. 

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I agree with Fatcharlie; deaf as a post , dead as a doornail.
Without wishing to add to the repetitiveness that sometimes goes on round here, I agree with the above that references to "deaf as a post" and "dead as a door nail" but I would add that I remember reading, in the beginning of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens he goes on at some length conjecturing as to why Marley should have been "dead as a door nail" and that "dead as a coffin nail" might have been more appropriate. Unfortunately I don't have a copy now but I think I remember it correctly.
the saying comes from another well known phrase "between you, me, and the gate post" being a secret conversation between two people normally at a gateway. The phrase was later bastardised into "As deaf as a door post" with regard to someone that wouldn`t hear something said in front of them.

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