rigor Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun something hard to endure
    hardship; rigourousness; severeness; rigorousness; rigour; asperity; grimness; severity.
    • the asperity of northern winters
  2. noun the quality of being valid and rigorous
    rigour; validity; cogency.
  3. noun excessive sternness
    harshness; stiffness; severity; severeness; inclemency; rigorousness; rigour; hardness; rigourousness.
    • severity of character
    • the harshness of his punishment was inhuman
    • the rigors of boot camp

WordNet

Ri"gor noun
Etymology
L. See Rigor., below.
Definitions
  1. Rigidity; stiffness.
  2. (ed.) A sense of chilliness, with contraction of the skin; a convulsive shuddering or tremor, as in the chill preceeding a fever.
Rig"or noun
Etymology
OE. rigour, OF. rigour, F. rigueur, from L. rigor, fr. rigere to be stiff. See Rigid.
Definitions
  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 1913