n. The state or property of being stiff or rigid; stiffness; rigidity; rigidness.n. The property of not bending or yielding; inflexibility; stiffness; hence, strictness without allowance, latitude, or indulgence; exactingness: as, to execute a law with rigor; to criticize with rigor.n. Severity of life; austerity.n. Sternness; harshness; cruelty.n. Sharpness; violence; asperity; inclemency: as, the rigor of winter.n. That which is harsh or severe; especially, an act of injustice, oppression, or cruelty.n. (rī′ gor). [NL.] In pathology, a sudden coldness, attended by shivering more or less marked, which ushers in many diseases, especially fevers and acute inflammation: commonly called chill. It is also produced by nervous disturbance or shock. [In this sense always spelled rigor.]n. Synonyms and Rigor, Rigidity, Rigidness, inclemency. There is a marked tendency to use rigidity of physical stiffness. Rigidity seems to take also the passive, while rigor takes the active, of the moral senses; as, rigidity of manner, of mood; rigor in the enforcement of laws. Rigidness perhaps holds a middle position, or inclines to be synonymous with rigidity. Rigor applies also to severity of cold. See austere.