wake the dead


Also found in: Wikipedia.

wake the dead

To be extremely noisy and disruptive. Would you two be quiet—you'll wake the dead! Having so many kids running around screaming all at once, it was loud enough to wake the dead!
See also: dead, wake
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

wake the dead

Fig. to be so loud as to wake those who are "sleeping" the most soundly: the dead. You are making enough noise to wake the dead. Stop hollering! You'll wake the dead!
See also: dead, wake
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

wake the ˈdead

(of a noise) be very loud: He must have heard it — that doorbell’s loud enough to wake the dead.
See also: dead, wake
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

wake the dead, to

Very loud. This hyperbole has been around for ages. John Woodcock Graves used it in his poem “John Peel” (ca. 1820), which later became a popular folk song: “’Twas the sound of his horn called me from my bed . . . For Peel’s view-hollo would waken the dead, Or a fox from his lair in the morning.”
See also: to, wake
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
See also:
References in classic literature ?
There was, of course, a good deal of noise - running about, the, shouts of the sailors, the thrashing of the sails - enough, in fact, to wake the dead. But S- never came on deck.
View in context
"There was Peg Barney sittin' on the groun' in his shirt - wan shoe off an' wan shoe on - whackin' a tent-peg over the head wid his boot, an' singin' fit to wake the dead. 'Twas no clane song that he sung, though.
View in context
I'll wake the dead! Stop where you are, or I'll make shrieks enough to wake the dead!'
View in context
Now the sound of heavy guns Rumble inside his head And the screaming 'whizz-bangs' Enough to wake the dead.
Poet's corner War Memorial Memories
A BONE-crunching, nerve-jangling tune that could wake the dead. Back in 2008 and named Santogold, American Santi White gave us the ubercatchy L.E.S Artistes.
SINGLE OF THE WEEK Santigold, Disparate Youth
It's enough to wake the dead or at least the sleeping.
Stop sump pump clunk
Too much coffee not only makes sleeping difficult but can appear to wake the dead.
Why coffee stirs the imagination
We wake the dead in dimly lit, carpeted rooms that are sometimes ridiculously called "salons." We drain bodies of every biological fluid, color death away with paint, and then refuse to touch them.
I bless dead people: despite our desire to keep death at a distance, Catholic tradition encourages us to honor the bodies of the faithful departed with a holy touch
Sam finally tells her mum who really killed Den and, as Peggy leaps out of the taxi at the cemetery, that screech would wake the dead: "Chrissie Watts!
We love telly!: Dead Ender; SOAPWATCH EASTENDERS BBC1, 7.30pm
Then there's that bloke who loves to dismantle his car in the gutter while playing his radio loud enough to wake the dead.
Richard Williamson column: SUMMER IN AN URBAN JUNGLE
Ned Reiter is so confident about his herbal brew he has called it Lazarus because it can "wake the dead".
Lazarus could take sting out of a hangover
"It's omnipotent, omnipresent, timeless; it can work miracles and wake the dead, cure the sick, make happy endings, judge and punish.
Pandora's box
The first series of the Golden Globenominated series about a pie shop owner with an ability to wake the dead. So, a bit like having student neighbours then.
Staying in: OUT ON DVD
You'd have thought she would have made enough noise to wake the dead. But I heard nothing."
Teeth out by pliers
Idioms browser ?
Full browser ?