Stiffness

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Stiffness \Stiff"ness\, n.
     The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of
     cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of
     character.
     [1913 Webster]
  


           The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too.
                                                    --South.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  stiffness
       n 1: the physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend
       2: the property of moving with pain or difficulty; "he awoke
          with a painful stiffness in his neck"
       3: the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by
          embarrassment) [syn: {awkwardness}, {clumsiness}, {gracelessness}]
       4: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
          of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
          [syn: {severity}, {harshness}, {rigor}, {rigour}, {inclemency},
           {hardness}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  140 Moby Thesaurus words for "stiffness":
     adamantness, aridity, barrenness, bloodlessness, buckram,
     ceremonial, ceremoniousness, ceremony, characterlessness,
     cohesiveness, colorlessness, costliness, deadness, dearness,
     dignity, dismalness, dourness, dragginess, dreariness, dryness,
     dullness, durability, dustiness, effeteness, emptiness, etiolation,
     extrinsicality, firmness, flatness, flintiness, form, formality,
     formalization, fundamentalism, gravity, great cost, grimness,
     hard-bittenness, hard-nosedness, hardiness, hardness, heaviness,
     highness, hollowness, immovability, immutability, impliability,
     inanity, inelasticity, inexcitability, inexorability,
     inflexibility, infrangibility, insipidity, insipidness,
     intransigeance, intransigence, intransigency, intransigentism,
     irreconcilability, jejunity, lastingness, leadenness,
     leatherlikeness, lifelessness, lowness of spirit, luxuriousness,
     obduracy, obdurateness, obstinacy, orthodoxy, paleness, pallor,
     pointlessness, pokiness, pomp, pomposity, ponderousness,
     precisianism, primness, purism, puritanism, relentlessness,
     renitence, renitency, resistance, richness, rigidity, rigidness,
     rigor, rigorism, rigorousness, ritual, rituality, ropiness,
     slowness, solemnity, spiritlessness, stamina, starchiness,
     steeliness, steepness, sterility, sternness, stiff temper,
     stiltedness, stodginess, strength, stringiness, stubbornness,
     stuffiness, stylization, sumptuousness, superficiality,
     tastelessness, tautness, tediousness, tenacity, tenseness, tension,
     tensity, tightness, toughness, unalterability, unbendingness,
     unbreakability, unbreakableness, unchangeability,
     uncompromisingness, ungivingness, uninterestingness, unliveliness,
     unrelentingness, unyieldingness, vapidity, vapidness, viscidity,
     vitality, weight, woodenness