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llingness 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.

A condition produced by the excessive or long-continued use of quinine, and marked by deafness, roaring in the ears, vertigo, etc.

purpose, state, or act. My common illness disqualifies me for all conversation; I mean my deafness. Swift. Me are not disqualified by their engagements in trade from being received in high society. Southey.

A disease characterized by deafness and vertigo, resulting in incoördination of movement. It is supposed to depend upon a morbid condition of the semicircular canals of the internal ear. Named after Ménière, a French physician.

One who, from deafness, either congenital or from early life, is unable to use articulate language; a deaf-mute.

nctions and diseases; mental; -- contrasted with physical. Psychical blindness, Psychical deafness (Med.), forms of nervous disease in which, while the senses of sight and hearing remain unimpaired, the mind fails to appreciate the significance of the sounds heard or the images seen. -- Psychical contagion, the transf…

Deafness. [Obs.]

To free from deafness; to cause to hear. [Obs.] Shak.

able to see quite well, speak fluently, and write correctly. Landois & Stirling. -- Word deafness (Physiol.), inability to understand spoken words, though the person affected may hear them and other sounds, and hence is not deaf. -- Word dumbness (Physiol.), inability to express ideas in verbal language, though the p…