Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

(n.) The state of being destitute of life, vigor, spirit, activity, etc.; dullness; inertness; languor; coldness; vapidness; indifference; as, the deadness of a limb, a body, or a tree; the deadness of an eye; deadness of the affections; the deadness of beer or cider; deadness to the world, and the like.