stiffness

American  

[stif-nis] / ˈstɪf nɪs /

noun

1. the state or condition of being rigid or firm.

   The bicycle’s frame is well balanced, with excellent stiffness throughout.

   Conventional wisdom has been that longer knife blades need more carbon for stiffness.

2. the state or condition of being unable to move easily.

   Proper stretching will help you avoid joint stiffness and muscle tension after a workout.

3. lack of ease or grace.

   The teacher offers advice on how to get over the stiffness or outright paralysis that can creep in when people make writing into a “big deal.”

4. the state or condition of being rigidly formal.

   There was a stiffness to the encounter, but the ambassador was not unfriendly.

   If representatives meet only under official circumstances, a degree of stiffness is introduced which does not allow people to exchange ideas as freely.

5. the state or condition of being excessive, difficult, or severe.

   The council expressed concern about the stiffness of the fines and sentences for such minor infractions.

6. (of soil) the state or condition of being compact; density.

   A variety of sediment samples are needed in order to recover different types of sediment, mainly based on their stiffness.

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Other Word Forms

• overstiffness
  noun
• semistiffness
  noun
• unstiffness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of stiffness

stiff ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Example Sentences

Stiffness and extensibility -- how far a material can stretch or expand without breaking -- are linked because they originate from the same building block: the polymer strands connected by crosslinks.

From Science Daily • Nov. 27, 2024

Stiffness aside, “Boom Boom Pow” was better, as was the relentless “I Gotta Feeling,” which opened and closed the set.

From New York Times • Feb. 7, 2011

Stiffness seems to me the most reprehensible thing in piano playing, as well as the most common fault with all kinds of players.

From Piano Mastery Talks with Master Pianists and Teachers by Brower, Harriette

Stiffness is a variable feature—in some cases amounting to absolute rigidity, so that no ordinary force will elicit movement.

From Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Thomson, Alexis

Stiffness is austerity, and awkwardness is accounted the simplicity of a saint, who has ever lived in a desert.

From Priests, Women, and Families by Michelet, Jules

Related Words

• rigidity