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abatement or mitigation; scrupulously accurate; exact; strict; severe; relentless; as, a rigorous officer of justice; a rigorous execution of law; a rigorous definition or demonstration. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian Rock With rigorous hands. Shak. We do not connect the scattered phenomena into their rigorous u…

Too rigorous; harsh.

Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [Obs.] God had provided a severe and angry education to chastise the forwardness of a young spirit. Jer. Taylor.

e quality or state of being anonymous; anonymousness; also, that which anonymous. [R.] He rigorously insisted upon the rights of anonymity. Carlyle.

Severe in modes of judging, or living, or acting; rigid; rigorous; stern; as, an austere man, look, life. From whom the austere Etrurian virtue rose. Dryden.

One who passes a rigorous or captious judgment; one who censures or finds fault; a harsh examiner or judge; a caviler; a carper. When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature. I. Watts. You know who the critics are th…

Rigorous; stringent; harsh. [Obs.] Punishing with the rod of district severity. Foxe.

Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms. I never could drive a hard bargain. Burke.

Not admitting excuse, evasion, or plea; rigorous. [R.] T. Adams.

re or harsh (generally restricted to the elements or weather); rough; boisterous; stormy; rigorously cold, etc.; as, inclement weather. Cowper. The guard the wretched from the inclement sky. Pope. Teach us further by what means to shun The inclement seasons, rain, ice, hail, and snow! Milton.

Pertaining to inquisition; making rigorous and unfriendly inquiry; searching; as, inquisitorial power. "Illiberal and inquisitorial abuse." F. Blackburne. He conferred on it a kind of inquisitorial and censorious power even over the laity, and directed it to inquire into all matters of conscience. Hume.…

Rigorous; severe; exacting; as, an ironclad oath or pledge. [Colloq.]

Mild; clement; merciful; not rigorous or severe; as, a lenient disposition; a lenient judge or sentence.

Not strict or rigorous; not confined or restricted to the literal sense; free; as, a liberal translation of a classic, or a liberal construction of law or of language.

To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.

Kept within due bounds; observing reasonable limits; not excessive, extreme, violent, or rigorous; limited; restrained; as:

A theory or practice which is a further development, on more rigorously scientific lines, of the theory and practice of Impressionism, originated by George Seurat (1859-91), and carried on by Paul Signac (1863- -) and others. Its method is marked by the laying of pure primary colors in minute dots upon a white ground,…

Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. Macaulay.

To abate in severity; to become less rigorous. In others she relaxed again, And governed with a looser rein. Prior.

Of or pertaining to Rhadamanthus; rigorously just; as, a Rhadamanthine judgment.