stiffness
Americannoun
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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.
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the state or condition of being unable to move easily.
Proper stretching will help you avoid joint stiffness and muscle tension after a workout.
-
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.”
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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.
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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.
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(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.
Other Word Forms
- overstiffness noun
- semistiffness noun
- unstiffness noun
Etymology
Origin of stiffness
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Origami models sometimes rely on folding or curving of paper for additional stiffness.
From BBC
I glanced over at my mom and saw that her face had a stiffness to it that made it clear that Salzburg, per usual, was getting on her nerves.
From Literature
Speaking to The Mirror, the 47-year-old said he suffered stiffness in his left arm and a loss of sight in his left eye.
From BBC
This allowed them to assess changes in cytoplasmic stiffness across different stages of the cell cycle.
From Science Daily
The supplements may also ease wear and tear, arthritis joint pain and stiffness, according to the results from 113 trials involving nearly 8,000 people.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
