stiffness Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend
  2. noun the property of moving with pain or difficulty
    • he awoke with a painful stiffness in his neck
  3. noun firm resoluteness in purpose or opinion or action
    • a charming host without any touch of stiffness or pomposity
  4. noun the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)
    gracelessness; clumsiness; awkwardness.
  5. noun excessive sternness
    harshness; severity; severeness; inclemency; rigor; rigorousness; rigour; hardness; rigourousness.
    • severity of character
    • the harshness of his punishment was inhuman
    • the rigors of boot camp

WordNet


Stiff"ness noun
Definitions
  1. The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of character.
    The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too. South.

Webster 1913