Search the Dictionary

The quality or state of being rigid; want of pliability; the quality of resisting change of from; the amount of resistance with which a body opposes change of form; -- opposed to flexibility, ductility, malleability, and softness.

tion or quality of being frigid; coldness; want of warmth. Ice is water congealed by the frigidity of the air. Sir T. Browne.

multiple inflammatory changes in the nerves, producing great muscular debility, a painful rigidity of the limbs, and cachexy.

to, or resembling, a corpse, or the changes produced by death; cadaverous; as, cadaveric rigidity. Dunglison. Cadaveric alkaloid, an alkaloid generated by the processes of decomposition in dead animal bodies, and thought by some to be the cause of the poisonous effects produced by the bodies. See Ptomaine.…

A morbid condition caused by an overwhelming shock or extreme fear and marked by rigidity of the muscles. -- Cat`a*plec"tic (#), a.

A state of permanent rigidity or contraction of the muscles, generally of the flexor muscles.

- Frame level, a mason's level. -- Frame saw, a thin saw stretched in a frame to give it rigidity.

Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character. [R.] It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath. Sir W. Scott. Black frost, cold so intense as to freeze vegetation and cause it to turn black, without the formation of hoarfrost. -- Frost beare…

The state or quality of being icy or very cold; frigidity.

nflexible, or not capable of being bent or changed; unyielding stiffness; inflexibleness; rigidity; firmness of will or purpose; unbending pertinacity; steadfastness; resoluteness; unchangeableness; obstinacy. The inflexibility of mechanism. A. Baxter. That grave inflexibility of soul. Churchill. The purity and inflexi…

The quality or state of being inflexible; inflexibility; rigidity; firmness.

e. See def. 3, above. -- Pad tree (Harness Making), a piece of wood or metal which gives rigidity and shape to a harness pad. Knight.

After death; as, post-mortem rigidity. Post-mortem examination (Med.), an examination of the body made after the death of the patient; an autopsy.

A defect of vision consequent upon advancing age. It is due to rigidity of the crystalline lens, which producepresbytia.

More or less permanent erection and rigidity of the penis, with or without sexual desire.

ent and bolted longitudinally to the ribs of a vessel, to hold them in position, and give rigidity to the framework. Rib-band lines, oblique longitudinal sectionss of the hull of a vessel. Knight.

Rigidity; stiffness.

Rigidity in principle or practice; strictness; -- opposed to laxity.

-- Hard rubber, a kind of vulcanized caoutchouc which nearly resembles horn in texture, rigidity, etc. -- India rubber, caoutchouc. See Caoutchouc. -- Rubber cloth, cloth covered with caoutchouc for excluding water or moisture. -- Rubber dam (Dentistry), a shield of thin sheet rubber clasped around a tooth to excl…

rum ( Etym: [NL., of the newborn], an affection characterized by a peculiar hardening and rigidity of the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues in the newly born. It is usually fatal. Called also skinbound disease.