Deafness \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)