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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.

Something used to make anything stiff. Stiffening order (Com.), a permission granted by the customs department to take cargo or ballast on board before the old cargo is out, in order to steady the ship.

er with oil or an unctuous substance; also, to spread over, as oil. And fragrant oils the stiffened limbs anoint. Dryden. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. John ix. 6.

A saw (as a tenon saw) whose blade is stiffened by an added metallic back.

A kind of under waist stiffened with whalebone, etc., worn esp. by women; a corset; stays.

A form of woman's underwaist stiffened with whalebones, or the like, and worn to support the breasts.

A coarse cloth of linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.

To stiffen with starch, and then make clear by clapping with the hands; as, to clearstarch muslin.

Gum, starch, and the like, used in stiffening or finishing silk, linen, and other fabrics.

A piece of wood set between two studs, posts, etc., to stiffen and support them.

Base course, under Base, n. -- Foundation muslin, an open-worked gummed fabric used for stiffening dresses, bonnets, etc. -- Foundation school, in England, an endowed school. -- To be on a foundation, to be entitled to a support from the proceeds of an endowment, as a scholar or a fellow of a college.…

abric resembling silk gauze; as, wire gauze; cotton gauze. Gauze dresser, one employed in stiffening gauze.

To smear with gum; to close with gum; to unite or stiffen by gum or a gumlike substance; to make sticky with a gumlike substance. He frets likke a gummed velvet.Shak.

To accustom by labor or suffering to endure with constancy; to strengthen; to stiffen; to inure; also, to confirm in wickedness or shame; to make unimpressionable. "Harden not your heart." Ps. xcv. 8. I would harden myself in sorrow. Job vi. 10.

A border made on sheet-metal ware by doubling over the edge of the sheet, to stiffen it and remove the sharp edge.

urgery, to make immovable (a naturally mobile part, as a joint) by the use of splints, or stiffened bandages.

us condition; a viscous, translucent substance in a condition between liquid and solid; a stiffened solution of gelatin, gum, or the like.

The state of being bound or stiffened; stiffness; as, the ligature of a joint.

A tetanic spasm in which the body is bent backwards and stiffened.