stone adv.
absolutely, purely, completely, to the highest degree, e.g. stone bonkers, stone crazy, absolutely insane, etc.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Volpone I i: He cannot be so stupid, or stone-dead. | |
| Familiar Letters (1737) I 3 May 259: She was found stone dead. | |
| Night-Walker IV i: Lets have a fire at thy house, A good fire [...] I am stone cold. | |
| London Spy V 114: If they have a Horse to sell that is Stone Blind, they’ll call a Hundred Gods to Witness he can see as well as you can. | |
| Fair Example V ii: Then art thou Stone-blind? Had’st thou never any Eyes? | |
| Hist. of the Two Orphans IV 51: ‘All these winners are stone dead warks,’ – (this our readers will do well to observe, according to the flash tongue, means in plain English downright fools). | |
| Tristram Shandy (1949) 210: I am giddy, – I am stone blind, – I’m dying. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Stone dead, dead as a stone. | |
| ‘The Cobbler’s Funeral’ in I (1975) 60: Their Eyes swell’d with grief they were almost stone blind. | |
| ‘Last Man’ Works (1862) I 243: The folks were all stone-asleep. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Georgia Scenes (1848) 28: Stone blind, you see, gentlemen. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Our Antipodes III 55: The black swan was stone dead. | |
| Autobiog. of a Female Slave 54: Well, tinks I, dese am quare times when a stone-dead nigger gits up and walks again like a live one. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor I 343/2: I was [...] obliged to go into St. Thomas’s Hospital. I was there eleven months, and came out stone blind. | |
| American Citizen (Butler, Pa) 5 Oct. 3/2: We shall vote for Abraham, / We don’t go it stone blind, / Jimmy step up to the polls. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘I Never Sarves a Hanimal So’ in Laughing Songster 38: But a poor voman she gets vopt stone blind. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 4 July 9/1: Why any person of the proper sex – unless one born stone blind, deaf, tongue-tied, bald, and with pronounced spinal curvature – should desire to break off an engagement with Miss Labertouche it is difficult to say. | |
| Boston Globe (MA) 11 Aug. 2/3: The boys from near and far’ll / All drink stone blind. | |
| Wallace Co. Register (KS) 2 Nov. 3/4: He’ll drink stone blind / If Johnny fills up the bowl. | |
| Sporting Times 22 Mar. 1/5: I’ve ’ad to lumber the old woman’s boots to pay the ’earing fee, and the bally old bounder’s stone deaf! | |
| Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 28 Mar. 3/2: ‘The Captain's been stony broke this three year,’ put in Vicary. | |
| Regiment 4 July 211/3: Aunt turned out to have been stone blind for over twenty years. | |
| Sun (NY) 2 Dec. 31/4: Th’ deer were down, stone dade, an th’ wolves was tearin’ at him. | |
| Gem 16 Mar. 10: If the animal’s stone dead he’ll float. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 15 Feb. 11/4: They Say [...] That A S has gone stone mad and is going to tie the knot. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper XL:3 138: I’m stone cold. | |
| ‘The Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: But all at once I place ’im, an’ I grin. / But ’e don’t jerry; ’e’s stone sober now. | |
| (con. WWI) Wings on My Feet 288: Gonna ride them cushions till I go stone blind. | |
| Shearer’s Colt 61: If anything goes wrong he’ll draw a knife in a minute. He goes stone mad. | |
| Caught (2001) 150: Watch yerself, mate, you’ll be goin’ pickin’ violets off of stones before you’re finished, stone bonk, you will. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/5: [I]f I’m not home on the dot, May-I will go stone mad. | |
| (con. 1936–46) Winged Seeds (1984) 369: Well, y’ know Melie goes stone crazy when she’s had a few. | |
| Dly Mirror (London) 30 Jan. 12/3: [cartoon cap.] Barmy! Stone Bonkers Barmy! | |
| Lowlife (2001) 17: Now this is mad. It is stone bonkers meshuggah. | |
| No Bugles, No Drums 10: Longfeather [...] you’re stone fuckin’ weird. | |
| Mortal Dreads in Shatterday (1982) 20: This apartment full of stone-righteous street hypes. | |
| An Eng. Madam 98: He was stone cold sober by now. | |
| ‘Martello’ in Liberty Tree 51: A rotten shower of prize idiots [...] Stony bonkers, they are. | |
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 28 June 9/3: ‘If i was a weak-minded person, I’d be stone crazy’. | |
| Pugilist at Rest 215: You were completely absolutely stone cool. | |
| Finnegan’s Week 62: I don’t wanna go to stony lonesome, not down in this fuckin country. | |
| Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] I’ve had a coup horse run last. Stone motherless last. | |
| ‘Itinerant Child’ 🎵 It’s a stone bloody miracle there’s no-one dead. | |
| et al ‘Even the Score’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 15 [TV script] The guy’s a stone bitch. Strong, tough, talented player. | |
| Turning Angel 379: ‘You crazy,’ he hisses. ‘You stone crazy, man.’. | |
| Truth 42: Just my dough, Dad, okay? [...] No insurance here, could run stone motherless. | |
| Riptide Ultra-Glide 140: ‘He didn’t just pull that shit out his ass [...] It took some stone-serious planning’. | |
| Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 30 Aug. T44/4: Instead of male or female [are] categories [...] ‘stone butch,’ ‘femme daddy’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 5 May 🌐 [H]e was stone mad for feud and crime. |
In compounds
1. (also stony blind) extremely drunk.
| ‘Of All The Blowings On The Town’ Flash Chaunter 5: Her mother she’s a lushington, / And stone blind drunk all day man. | |
| Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 2 Nov. 6/2: We’ll all drink stone blind, Vaughan, fill up the bowl. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Mar. 11/2: I can drink whisky, but you can drink me stone blind; you have more whisky is you now than ever I had. | |
| Passage (1959) 241: He’s lying stony blind up at the pub there, and won’t be fit to take the boat out for a week. |
2. extremely intoxicated with a drug.
| Golden Spike 175: ‘I’m going to get stone-blind,’ he said. |
see separate entry.
In phrases
(UK und.) totally impoverished.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Stone cold: Without means. |