Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Something that is used to make a substance stiff or less soft, as starch.
- noun Something inserted to make a garment, or part of a garment, stiff and capable of keeping its shape. See buckram, crinoline.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Act or process of making stiff.
- noun Something used to make anything stiff.
- noun (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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An item, material or feature that makes something
stiffer . - verb Present participle of
stiffen .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the process of becoming stiff or rigid
- noun the act of becoming stiff
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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– I say I would become emphatic and cogent, not to say rather complacent, in such an address, when it would all go for nothing by reason of the Odd Girl’s suddenly stiffening from the toes upward, and glaring among us like a parochial petrifaction.
The Haunted House by Charles Dickens | Solar Flare: Science Fiction News 2004
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They are postcard sized bits of fabric art, with some kind of stiffening in the centre which go directly in the post.
Archive 2007-02-01 Penny 2007
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He heard her breath coming quickly, and saw the kind of stiffening that went through her body; but she kept silence, and did not speak again till they were almost at his house-door.
Maurice Guest 2003
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In addition to statical functions, such as stiffening of the building or room and taking up of loads, they should also meet fire-resisting, sound-insulating and heat-insulating requirements.
1. Purpose of Ceilings Rolf Becher 1993
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Shakespeare could not recover the fresh and popular part of the thing; for he came at a later stage in a process of stiffening which is the main thing to be studied in later mediævalism.
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Army C, under the Austrian General von Pflanzer-Baltin, likewise supplied with a good "stiffening" of German soldiers, was accredited to the far-eastern section -- the Pruth Valley and the Bukowina.
The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12) Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes Francis Trevelyan Miller 1902
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One prelate of distinction devoted his triennial charge to the subject, and a general "stiffening" of episcopal good nature set in all round.
English Men of Letters: Crabbe Alfred Ainger 1870
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Shear thickening refers to a material's "stiffening" response to a shear stress, or force, which can occur as shock, vibration, or g-force side loads.
Free Apparel News – Apparel RSS XML Feeds – Fibre2fashion.com 2010
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Campbell interjects and says "there's too many qualifications" in the dossier, adding that the document needs "stiffening".
The Guardian World News Ben Dowell 2010
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Campbell interjects and says "there's too many qualifications" in the dossier, adding that the document needs "stiffening".
Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk Ben Dowell 2010
GHibbs commented on the word stiffening
My adjectival use: 'They were getting chilled in the stiffening wind.'
August 24, 2011