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stiffness

noun

Etymology

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).

  1. derived from stīþness — “stiffness”
  2. inherited from stiffenes

Definitions

  1. Rigidity or a measure of rigidity.

  2. Inflexibility or a measure of inflexibility.

  3. Inelegance

    Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness.

    • His stiffness hampered the conversation.
    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    • After years when I met a friend inside the aircraft and could sense stiffness in the conversation, a whiff of mild slang was the ice breaker, followed by loads of campus nostalgia.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work

      Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for stiffness. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA