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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

211 words match “STIFF”

STIFF a. 8 definitions

Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints. [They] rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aërial sky. Milton.

STIFF-BACKED a.

Obstinate. J. H. Newman.

STIFF-HEARTED a.

Obstinate; stubborn; contumacious. Ezek. ii. 4.

STIFF-NECKED a.

Stubborn; inflexibly obstinate; contumacious; as, stiff-necked pride; a stiff-necked people. Ex. xxxii. 9.

STIFF-NECKEDNESS n.

The quality or state of being stiff-necked; stubbornness.

STIFF-TAILED a.

Having the quill feathers of the tail somewhat rigid.

STIFFEN v. 4 definitions

tiono make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Shak.

One who, or that which, stiffens anything, as a piece of stiff cloth in a cravat.

STIFFENING n. 2 definitions

Act or process of making stiff.

Somewhat stiff.

In a stiff manner.

The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of character. The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too. South.

The ruddy duck. [Local, U.S.]

arious strains, differing in form and color, and characteristic of different countries. Mastiff bat (Zoöl.) , any bat of the genus Molossus; so called because the face somewhat resembles that of a mastiff.

RESTIFF a. 2 definitions

Restive. [Obs.]

Restiveness. [Obs.]

age to; to further; to promote; to benefit; to profit. The truth is, the archbishop's own stiffness and averseness to comply with the court designs, advantaged his adversaries against him. Fuller. What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away Luke ix. 25. To advantage one's sel…

To affect or be affected with anchylosis; to unite or consolidate so as to make a stiff joint; to grow together into one. [Spelt also ankylose.] Owen.

ANCHYLOSIS; ANKYLOSIS n.

Stiffness or fixation of a joint; formation of a stiff joint. Dunglison.

Fig.: Lean; lank; raw-boned; ungraceful; sharp and stiff in character; as, remarkably angular in his habits and appearance; an angular female. Angular aperture, Angular distance. See Aperture, Distance. -- Angular motion, the motion of a body about a fixed point or fixed axis, as of a planet or pendulum. It is equal t…