rigi-, rig-

Stiffness of the neck and resistance to passive movements, particularly flexion, usually accompanied by pain and spasm when motion is attempted.

It is recognized widely as the most common sign, after early infancy, of meningeal irritation, notably of meningitis and bleeding into the subarachnoid space which is the layer of tissue situated or occurring between the arachnoid (like a cobweb of fibers) and the pia mater (the delicate and highly vascular, blood vessels, membrane immediately investing [covering or enveloping] the brain and the spinal cord).

The resistance offered by the eyeball to a change in intraocular (inside the eye) volume which is manifested as a change in intraocular pressure in the eye.

Increased muscular tone in Parkinson's disease, either the lead-pipe type of rigidity or the cogwheel-type, occurring in patients showing both static tremor and increased tone.

When doctors move a person's limb passively around a joint, they note the degree of resistance to movement (muscle tone).

Muscle tone which is uneven and suddenly increased (spasticity) may be a result of a stroke or spinal cord injury.

Muscle tone that is evenly increased (rigidity) may be caused by disease of the basal ganglia; such as, Parkinson's disease.

Muscle tone is severely reduced (flaccid) immediately and temporarily after a spinal cord injury produces paralysis.

Cervical stenosis or rigidity during a woman's child labor resulting from a prior injury or disease.

1. Becoming numb or stiff.
2. Approaching rigid or stiff characteristics.

Growing stiff or numb.

1. Pertaining to something that is applied or carried out strictly, with no allowances or exceptions: Adam and Eve have a special set of rigid rules that their children are taught to follow.
3. Referring to something which is unchanged and strictly adhered to and not allowed to be disobeyed: Military organizations have rigid forms of rules that its members must obey when given orders by superior officers.
4. Etymology: from Latin rigidus, "hard, stiff, rough, severe"; from rigere, "to be stiff"; related to Latin frigus, "cold" and Greek rhigos, "frost, cold". © ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

A continuous arch in a building which fabricated without hinges or joints and is attached to the abutments or the parts or junctures of a structure that bear the weight or pressure of an arch.

A conveyor in the form of an endless belt or chain to which are attached projecting arms or shelves which carry the materials.

A conveyor is any materials-handling machine designed to move individual articles; such as, solids or free-flowing bulk materials over a horizontal, inclined, declined, or vertical path of travel with continuous motion.

1. In mechanics, a body which does not change its shape or size regardless of the force applied to it; that is, the relative position of its component particles is absolutely fixed in positon relative to each other.
2. An actual body whose behavior approaches that of an ideal rigid body; such as, a steel beam.
3. An idealized extended solid whose size and shape are definitely fixed and remain unaltered when forces are applied.

The rigid body assumption is a mathematical convenience that is useful and gives correct results for many important phenomena.

In electromagnetism, a coaxial cable in which the central conductor and the outer conductor are formed by joining rigid pieces of copper.

A mechanical device which joins, or fastens, shafts that are connected so their axes are directly in line and normally stay that way.

A structural steel skeleton frame in which beams and columns and end connections of all members are rigidly connected without using hinges, so that the angles they make with each other do not change.

1. In civil engineering, a roadway or a airstrip foundation constructed of concrete slabs and made to withstand and to distribute heavy loads.
2. A thick portland cement pavement on a gravel base and subbase, with steel reinforcement and often with transverse joints.

To become stiff and inflexible (unable to bend), or to cause something to become stiff and inflexible.