Part 49

Dryden.

4. Obscurely heard; stifled; deadened. [R.]

A deaf murmur through the squadron went.

Dryden.

5. Decayed; tasteless; dead; as, a deaf nut; deaf corn. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

If the season be unkindly and intemperate, they [peppers] will catch a blast; and then the seeds will be deaf, void, light, and naught.

Holland.

Deaf and dumb, without the sense of hearing or the faculty of speech. See Deaf-mute.

Deaf (?; 277), v. t. To deafen. [Obs.] Dryden.

Deaf"en (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deafened (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Deafening.] [From Deaf.] 1. To make deaf; to deprive of the power of hearing; to render incapable of perceiving sounds distinctly.

Deafened and stunned with their promiscuous cries.

Addison.

2. (Arch.) To render impervious to sound, as a partition or floor, by filling the space within with mortar, by lining with paper, etc.

Deaf"en*ing, n. The act or process of rendering impervious to sound, as a floor or wall; also, the material with which the spaces are filled in this process; pugging.

Deaf"ly, adv. Without sense of sounds; obscurely.

Deaf"ly, a. Lonely; solitary. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Deaf"-mute` (?), n. A person who is deaf and dumb; one who, through deprivation or defect of hearing, has either failed the acquire the power of speech, or has lost it. [See Illust. of Dactylology.]

Deaf-mutes are still so called, even when, by artificial methods, they have been taught to speak imperfectly.

Deaf"-mut`ism (?), n. The condition of being a deaf-mute.

Deaf"ness (?), n. 1. Incapacity of perceiving sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impression which constitute hearing; want of the sense of hearing.

2. Unwillingness to hear; voluntary rejection of what is addressed to the understanding.

Nervous deafness, a variety of deafness dependent upon morbid change in some portion of the nervous system, especially the auditory nerve.

Deal (dl), n. [OE. del, deel, part, AS. dl; akin to OS. dl, D. & Dan. deel, G. theil, teil, Icel. deild, Sw. del, Goth. dails. √65. Cf. 3d Dole.] 1. A part or portion; a share; hence, an indefinite quantity, degree, or extent, degree, or extent; as, a deal of time and trouble; a deal of cold.

Three tenth deals [parts of an ephah] of flour.

Num. xv. 9.

As an object of science it [the Celtic genius] may count for a good deal . . . as a spiritual power.

M. Arnold.

She was resolved to be a good deal more circumspect.