rigor

[ rig-er ]
See synonyms for rigor on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people.

  2. the full or extreme severity of laws, rules, etc.

  1. severity of living conditions; hardship; austerity: the rigor of wartime existence.

  2. a severe or harsh act, circumstance, etc.

  3. scrupulous or inflexible accuracy or adherence: the logical rigor of mathematics.

  4. severity of weather or climate or an instance of this: the rigors of winter.

  5. Pathology. a sudden coldness, as that preceding certain fevers; chill.

  6. Physiology. a state of rigidity in muscle tissues during which they are unable to respond to stimuli due to the coagulation of muscle protein.

  7. Obsolete. stiffness or rigidity.

Origin of rigor

1
1350–1400; Middle English rigour<Latin rigor stiffness, equivalent to rig(ēre) to be stiff + -or-or1
  • Also especially British, rig·our .

Other words for rigor

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rigor in a sentence

  • Luck favored her astonishingly in her efforts to escape the rigors of school discipline.

    A Hoosier Chronicle | Meredith Nicholson
  • As the rain lessened, and the cold increased, I knew that rigors would soon come upon us.

    The Way of a Man | Emerson Hough
  • They had convents, like the other monks; but they professed absolute poverty, went barefooted, and submitted to increased rigors.

  • His humanity was as marked as his fanaticism, and nothing could weaken it,--not even the rigors of his convent life.

  • Nothing could have happened more effectually to loosen the rigors of the feudal system.

British Dictionary definitions for rigor

rigor

/ (ˈraɪɡɔː, ˈrɪɡə) /


noun
  1. med a sudden feeling of chilliness, often accompanied by shivering: it sometimes precedes a fever

  2. (ˈrɪɡə) pathol rigidity of a muscle; muscular cramp

  1. a state of rigidity assumed by some animals in reaction to sudden shock

  2. the inertia assumed by some plants in conditions unfavourable to growth

Origin of rigor

1
see rigour

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012