Englishdead to the world
Meaning: Fast asleep.
Example: “After the night shift, he was dead to the world until noon.”
Origin: Started out as religious language: an early sense of "dead to the world," current by the 1700s or earlier, described someone who had turned entirely away from worldly concerns to live only for God, indifferent to everything the ordinary world offered. By the late 1800s the phrase had drifted from spiritual detachment to plain unconsciousness, and from there to the now-familiar sense of a sleep so deep the sleeper is effectively unreachable. Sir Walter Scott's 1824 novel St. Ronan's Well carries an early example of something close to this modern sense, well before the exact current phrasing settles into print by around 1899.
More English idioms
- down and out Poor.
- down in the dumps Depressed.
- down to the wire To the deadline.
- draw a blank To get no result; or to be unable to remember something.
- draw the line at something To not allow something beyond a certain acceptable point.
- dressed to kill Dressed to make a strong impression, usually in fancy or stylish clothes.
Explore another collection: Proverbs
Short sayings of timeless wisdom from more than 50 cultures, each with its meaning and origin.
- Anything for a quiet life. Compromising principles for peace often costs more than the temporary harmony it buys.
- After rain comes fair weather. Hardship is temporary; patience through difficulty leads naturally to better conditions.
- Small rain lays great dust. Gentle persistence dissolves entrenched problems that seem immovable through force alone.
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