Adjacent Words

Rigor definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RIG'OR, n. [L. from rigeo, to be stiff.
1. Stiffness; rigidness; as Gorgonian rigor.
2. In medicine, a sense of chilliness, with contradiction of the skin; a convulsive shuddering or slight tremor, as in the cold fit of a fever.
3. Stiffness of opinion or temper; severity; sternness.
All his rigor is turned to grief and pity.
4. Severity of life; austerity; voluntary submission to pain, abstinence or mortification.
5. Strictness; exactness without allowance, latitude or indulgence; as the rigor of criticism; to execute a law with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor.
6. violence; fury. [Not in use.]
7. Hardness; solidity. [Unusual.]
8. Severity; asperity; as the rigors of a cold winter.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters" [syn: asperity, grimness, hardship, rigor, rigour, severity, severeness, rigorousness, rigourousness]
2: the quality of being valid and rigorous [syn: cogency, validity, rigor, rigour]
3: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp" [syn: severity, severeness, harshness, rigor, rigour, rigorousness, rigourousness, inclemency, hardness, stiffness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English rigour, from Anglo-French, from Latin rigor, literally, stiffness, from rig?re to be stiff Date: 14th century 1. a. (1) harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment ; severity (2) the quality of being unyielding or inflexible ; strictness (3) severity of life ; austerity b. an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty 2. a tremor caused by a chill 3. a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable; especially extremity of cold 4. strict precision ; exactness <logical rigor> 5. a. obsolete rigidity, stiffness b. rigidness or torpor of organs or tissue that prevents response to stimuli c. rigor mortis

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. Med. 1 a sudden feeling of cold with shivering accompanied by a rise in temperature, preceding a fever etc. 2 rigidity of the body caused by shock or poisoning etc. Etymology: ME f. L f. rigere be stiff 2. US var. of RIGOUR.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rigor Ri"gor, n. [L. See Rigor., below.] 1. Rigidity; stiffness. 2. (ed.) A sense of chilliness, with contraction of the skin; a convulsive shuddering or tremor, as in the chill preceding a fever. Rigor caloris[L., rigor of heat] (Physiol.), a form of rigor mortis induced by heat, as when the muscle of a mammal is heated to about 50[deg]C. Rigor mortis[L., rigor of death], death stiffening; the rigidity of the muscles that occurs at death and lasts till decomposition sets in. It is due to the formation of myosin by the coagulation of the contents of the individual muscle fibers.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rigor Rig"or, n. [OE. rigour, OF. rigour, F. rigueur, from L. rigor, fr. rigere to be stiff. See Rigid.] [Written also rigour.] 1. The becoming stiff or rigid; the state of being rigid; rigidity; stiffness; hardness. The rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move. --Milton. 2. (Med.) See 1st Rigor, 2. 3. Severity of climate or season; inclemency; as, the rigor of the storm; the rigors of winter. 4. Stiffness of opinion or temper; rugged sternness; hardness; relentless severity; hard-heartedness; cruelty. All his rigor is turned to grief and pity. --Denham. If I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises, . . . I tell you 'T is rigor and not law. --Shak. 5. Exactness without allowance, deviation, or indulgence; strictness; as, the rigor of criticism; to execute a law with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor; -- opposed to lenity. 6. Severity of life; austerity; voluntary submission to pain, abstinence, or mortification. The prince lived in this convent with all the rigor and austerity of a capuchin. --Addison. 7. Violence; force; fury. [Obs.] Whose raging rigor neither steel nor brass could stay. --Spenser. Syn: Stiffness; rigidness; inflexibility; severity; austerity; sternness; harshness; strictness; exactness.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see rigour

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Stiffness, rigidity, rigidness, inflexibility, hardness. 2. Severity, austerity, harshness, sternness, asperity. 3. Strictness, exactness. 4. Inclemency, severity. 5. (Med.) Sudden coldness with shivering.

Moby Thesaurus

Albigensianism, Catharism, Franciscanism, Sabbatarianism, Trappism, Waldensianism, Yoga, absolute zero, absoluteness, abstinence, abstruseness, accuracy, acerbity, acidity, acridity, acrimony, acuteness, adverse circumstances, adversity, affliction, aggravation, algidity, anchoritic monasticism, anchoritism, animality, annoyance, arduousness, asceticism, asperity, astringency, atrocity, attention to detail, attention to fact, austerity, barbarity, bite, bitterness, bleakness, blight, bloodlust, bothersomeness, briskness, brutality, bummer, burdensomeness, care, care for truth, causticity, chill, chilliness, circumstantiality, cold, coldness, complexity, complication, conscientiousness, cool, coolness, coolth, correctness, crispness, criticality, criticalness, cross, cryogenics, cryology, curse, decrease in temperature, delicacy, destructiveness, detail, difficulties, difficultness, difficulty, downer, edge, eremitism, exactingness, exactitude, exactness, exquisiteness, extremity, faithfulness, fasting, faultlessness, ferociousness, fidelity, fierceness, fineness, finicality, finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, firmness, flagellation, flawlessness, force, freezing point, freshness, frigidity, frostiness, fundamentalism, furiousness, fussiness, gelidity, grip, hairiness, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hardcase, hardness, hardship, harshness, iciness, impetuosity, impliability, inclemency, inexorability, inflexibility, inhospitableness, inhumanity, intense cold, intensity, intricacy, irritation, keenness, laboriousness, literalism, literality, literalness, low temperature, maceration, malignity, mathematical precision, mendicantism, mercilessness, meticulousness, mindlessness, minuteness, monachism, monasticism, mordacity, mordancy, mortification, murderousness, niceness, nicety, nip, nippiness, obduracy, obdurateness, obstinacy, onerousness, oppressiveness, orthodoxy, particularity, particularness, perfection, pitilessness, plight, poignancy, point, preciseness, precisianism, precision, predicament, pressure, punctilio, punctiliousness, punctuality, purism, puritanism, rawness, refinement, relentlessness, renitence, renitency, right, rightness, rigidity, rigidness, rigorism, rigorousness, roughness, ruggedness, savagery, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, sea of troubles, self-denial, self-mortification, severity, sharp air, sharpness, starchiness, sternness, stiffness, sting, strenuousness, stress, stress of life, strictness, stridency, stringency, stubbornness, subtlety, tartness, tautness, teeth, tenseness, tension, tensity, terrorism, textualism, the letter, tightness, toilsomeness, toughness, trenchancy, trial, tribulation, trouble, troubles, troublesomeness, unbendingness, uncompromisingness, ungentleness, unrelentingness, unyieldingness, vale of tears, vandalism, vehemence, venom, viciousness, vicissitude, violence, virulence, visitation, voluntary poverty