RIGOR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Rigor

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/rˈɪgər/ Listen

noun

Rigor n.

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 (Physiol.), a form of rigor mortis induced by heat, as when the muscle of a mammal is heated to about 50° C.

Rigor mortis, 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.

Rigor n. (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."

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." "If I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises,... I tell you 'T is rigor and not law."

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."

7.

Violence; force; fury. (Obs.) "Whose raging rigor neither steel nor brass could stay."

Synonyms: Stiffness; rigidness; inflexibility; severity; austerity; sternness; harshness; strictness; exactness.

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Etymology of 'Rigor'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rigor" Quotes from Famous Books

... argument seemed finally to soften the rigor of her determination. She relented; but there was yet an obstacle, she said, which she felt assured I had not properly considered. This was a delicate point—for a woman to urge, especially so; in mentioning ...

— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 3 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... palpable, that I have presumed it would appear so to Congress, and have therefore kept up the expenses of my house at the current rate of nine thousand dollars a year. If my expectations should be thought unreasonable, I shall submit and immediately reduce my establishment, with such rigor, as to make up this article in the shortest time possible. I enclose you a letter from Fisseaux & Co. on the subject of their loan. I wish the loan lately obtained by Mr. Adams, may enable you to get rid of the debt of the Foreign Officers, principal and interest. Indeed, if Mr. ...

— The Writings of Thomas Jefferson - Library Edition - Vol. 6 (of 20) • Thomas Jefferson

... into silence, Robert's body was wrung with pangs. His spirit seemed to struggle in its earthly house, his flesh to divide and dissolve in anguish. Horrid tremors tore him; rigor of cold clawed at his heart, yet fever seemed to flush every channel of his body; his senses reeled as if to dissolution. Again the lightning flamed from the sword of the archangel; again the sullen thunder rumbled through the vaulted darkness. Robert staggered to his feet with an inarticulate ...

— The Proud Prince • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... woman as well as a loving mother, she was not content that he should be as other children, forced "to serve with rigor" and his life made "bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick and in all manner of service of the field." I presume she thought he was a little more beautiful and more clever than any child that ever lived before, ...

— Fair to Look Upon • Mary Belle Freeley

... a swift disappearance of a dark face from a window, and the door was flung open, and the grimly faithful servant-woman came forth and lifted Dorothy out of the sleigh, crooning the while in tender and angry gutturals. Poor Dorothy Fair shook like a white flower in a wind, for beside the rigor of the cold, which seemed to pierce her very soul, the chill of fever was still upon her. She chattered helplessly when she tried to speak, and there were sobs in her throat. The black woman half carried her ...

— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

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