'deaf a door'

[rasc]

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!

[Xollob]

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.

[kempie]

Also to add further confusion the phrase(s) are also used with deaf being replaced with dead.

[kempie]

'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

[FatCharlie]

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'. 

[tpfan]

I agree with Fatcharlie; deaf as a post , dead as a doornail.

[Dusky]

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.

[david.lloyd7]

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.