dead to the world

English

Adjective

dead to the world (not comparable)

1. Sound asleep.
   • 1919, Stewart Edward White, chapter 8, in The Killer:

     However, he slept right through the night, and was still dead to the world when I slipped out.

2. Unconscious.
   • 2010, David Harfield, Renaissance‎^[1], →ISBN, page 509:

     Simon hit him from behind on the back of his head. The size of his punch was enough to knock even the toughest senseless. Simon's victim fell to the deck. . . . There he lay, dead to the world.

3. Without social relationships or communication; without emotional or tangible bonds to others.
   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in St. Ronan's Well:

     [D]id you think that a being so sequestered as I am was already dead to the world, even while he was walking upon its surface?

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 67, in Barnaby Rudge:

     There were some broken men among these debtors who had been in jail so long, and were so miserable and destitute of friends, so dead to the world, and utterly forgotten and uncared for, that they implored their jailers not to set them free.

   • 1876, Mark Twain, chapter 22, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:

     During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its happenings.

See also

• lost to the world