Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rigor

Ri′gor (L. rī′gŏr; E. rĭg′ẽr), 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°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.

Rig′or (rĭg′ẽr), 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.