Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.