Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DEAD'-LIFT, n.

A heavy weight; a hopeless exigency. – Hudibras.

DEAD'-LIGHT, n. [ded'-light.]

A strong wooden port, made to suit a cabin window, in which it is fixed, to prevent the water from entering a ship in a storm.

DEAD'LI-HOOD, n.

The state of the dead. – Pearson.

DEAD'LI-NESS, n. [ded'liness.]

The quality of being deadly.

DEAD'LY, a. [dedl'y.]

1. That may occasion death; mortal; fatal; destructive; as, a deadly blow or wound.
2. Mortal; implacable; aiming to kill or destroy; as, a deadly enemy; deadly malice; a deadly feud.

DEAD'LY, adv. [ded'ly.]

1. In a manner resembling death; as, deadly pale or wan. – Shak.
2. Mortally. With groanings of a deadly wounded man. – Ezek. xxx.
3. Implacably; destructively.
4. In a vulgar or ludicrous sense, very; extremely; as, a deadly cunning man. – Arbuthnot.

DEAD'LY-CAR-ROT, n.

A plant of the genus Thapsia.

DEAD'LY-NIGHT-SHADE, n.

A plant of the genus Atropa.

DEAD'NESS, n. [ded'ness.]

1. Want of natural life or vital power, in an animal or plant; as, the deadness of a limb, of a body, or of a tree.
2. Want of animation; dullness; languor; as, the deadness of the eye.
3. Want of warmth or ardor; coldness; frigidity; as, the deadness of the affections.
4. Vapidness; want of spirit; as, the deadness of liquors.
5. State of being incapable of conception, according to the ordinary laws of nature. – Rom. iv. 19.
6. Indifference; mortification of the natural desires; alienation of heart from temporal pleasures; as, deadness to the world.

DEAD'NET-TLE, n.

A plant of the genus Lamium, and another of the genus Galeopsis.

DEAD'PLEDGE, n.

A mortgage or pawning of things, or thing pawned. – Bailey.

DEAD'-RECK-ON-ING, n.

In navigation, the judgment or estimation of the place of a ship, without any observation of the heavenly bodies; or, an account of the distance she has run by the log, and of the course steered by the compass, and this rectified by due allowances for drift, lee-way, &c. – Mar. Dict.

DEAD'STRUCK, a.

Confounded; struck with horror. – Hall.

DEAD'WA-TER, n.

The eddy water closing in with a ship's stern, as she passes through the water.

DEAD'WOOD, n.

Blocks of timber laid on the keel of a ship, particularly at the extremities.

DEAD'WORKS, n.

The parts of a ship which are above the surface of the water, when she is balanced for a voyage. – Mar. Dict.

DEAF, a. [deef; Sax. deaf; Ice. dauf; D. doof; G. taub; Dan. döv; Sw. döf; D. dooven; to quench or stifle; Dan. döver, to deafen; coinciding with Ch. טפא, to extinguish. L. stipo; Fr. etouffer, to stuff. Hence we say, thick of hearing. The true English pronunciation of this word is deef, as appears from the poetry of Chaucer, who uniformly makes it rhyme with leaf; and this proof is confirmed by poetry in the works of Sir W. Temple. Such was the pronunciation which our ancestors brought from England. The word is in analogy with leaf, sheaf, and the long sound of the vowels naturally precedes the semi-vowel f. Def, from the Danish and Swedish pronunciation, is an anomaly in English of a singular kind, there being not another word like it in the language. See Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue.]

1. Not perceiving sounds; not receiving impressions from sonorous bodies through the air; as, a deaf ear.
2. Wanting the sense of hearing; having organs which do not perceive sounds; as, a deaf man. It is followed by to before that which ought to be heard; as deaf to the voice of the orator. Blind are their eyes, their ears are deaf, / Nor hear when mortals pray; / Mortals that wait for their relief, / Are blind and deaf as they. – Watts, Ps. 135.
3. In a metaphorical sense, not listening; not regarding; not moved, persuaded or convinced; rejecting; as, deaf to reason or arguments. Men are deaf to calls of the Gospel.
4. Without the ability or will to regard spiritual things; unconcerned; as, hear, ye deaf. – Is. xlii.
5. Deprived of the power of hearing; deafened; as, deaf with clamor.
6. Stifled; imperfect; obscurely heard; as, a deaf noise or murmur. – Dryden.

DEAF, v.t.

To deafen, is used by Dryden, but is obsolete, unless perhaps in poetry.

DEAF'EN, v.t. [dee'fn.]

1. To make deaf; to deprive of the power of hearing; to impair the organs of hearing, so as to render them unimpressible to sounds.
2. To stun; to render incapable of perceiving sounds distinctly; as, deafened with clamor or tumult.

DEAF'EN-ED, pp.

Made deaf; stunned.

DEAF'EN-ING, ppr.

Making deaf.

DEAF'LY, adv. [dee'fle.]

Without sense of sounds; obscurely heard.

DEAF'NESS, n. [dee'fness.]

1. Incapacity of perceiving sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impressions which constitute hearing; as, the deafness of the ears; hence, applied to persons, want of the sense of hearing.
2. Unwillingness to hear and regard; voluntary rejection of what is addressed to the ear and to the understanding. King Charles.

DEAL, n. [Sax. dæl, dal, gedal; Ir. dal; D. deel; G. theil; Dan. deel; Sw. del; Russ. dolia. See the verb.]

1. Literally, a division; a part or portion; hence, an indefinite quantity, degree or extent; as, a deal of time and trouble; a deal of cold; a deal of space. Formerly it was limited by some, as some deal; but this is now obsolete or vulgar. In general, we now qualify the word with great, as, a great deal of labor; a great deal of time and pains; a great deal of land. In the phrases, it is a great deal better or worse, the words, great deal, serve as modifiers of the sense of better and worse. The true construction is, it is, by a great deal, better; it is better by a great deal, that is, by a great part or difference.
2. The division or distribution of cards; the art or practice of dealing cards. The deal, the shuffle, and the cut. – Swift.
3. The division of a piece of timber made by sawing; a board or plank; a sense much more used in England than in the United States.

DEAL, v.i.

1. To traffick; to trade; to negotiate. They buy and sell, they deal and traffick. – South.
2. To act between man and man; to intervene; to transact or negotiate between men. He that deals between man and man, raiseth his own credit with both. – Bacon.
3. To behave well or ill; to act; to conduct one's self in relation to others. Thou shalt not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie. – Lev. xix.
4. To distribute cards. To deal by, to treat, either well or ill; as, to deal well by domestics. Such one deals not fairly by his own mind. – Locke. To deal in, to have to do with; to be engaged in; to practice. They deal in political matters; they deal in low humor. #2. To trade in; as, to deal in silks, or in cutlery. To deal with, to treat in any manner; to use well or ill. Now will we deal worse with thee. – Gen. xix. Return … and I will deal well with thee. – Gen. xxxii. #2. To contend with; to treat with, by way of opposition, check or correction; as, he has turbulent passions to deal with. #3. To treat with by way of discipline, in ecclesiastical affairs; to admonish.