rigi-, rig-

(Latin: stiff, hard, numb; to be frozen, to grow stiff with cold, to be chilled)

rigidity
1. The physical property of being stiff and resisting bending or deformtion.
2. The circumstances in which a substance renders something inflexible, stiff, or non-pliable.
3. In physiology, a functional conditon of the skeletal muscles, characterized by a marked increase in their tone and in their resistance to deformation.

Muscle rigidity results from changes in the character of the neural influences that the central and peripheral nervous systems continuously exert on the muscles.

4. The quality of being rigid and rigorously severe in discipline, rules, or behavior.
5. Tenseness; immovability; stiffness; inability to bend or to be bent.
6. In psychiatry, an excessive resistance to change.
7. In medicine, stiffness or inflexibility; especially, that which is abnormal or morbid.
8. In neurology, one type of increase in muscle tone when it is at rest; it is characterized by increased resistance to a passive stretch, independent of velocity (speed), and is symmetric around the joints.

It increases with the activation of the corresponding muscles in the contralateral limb.

rigidizer
In engineering, a supporting structure which is designed to eliminate unwanted vibrations.
rigidness
1. The physical property of being stiff and resisting bending; not flexible or pliant.
2. Marked by a lack of flexibility; rigorous and exacting.
3. Scrupulously maintained or performed: "The military training center practiced rigidness in discipline."
4. Unbending, firm, inflexible.
rigor (s), rigors (pl)
1. Unrelenting strictness or toughness in dealing with people or things and an unwillingness to make concessions.
2. The application of precise and exacting standards when doing something.
3. An experience of great hardship or difficulty: "His father had to suffer the rigors of life on the battlefront during the war."
4. Severe weather or the harshness of weather.
5. Rigidity of the body or a stiffness and lack of response to stimuli in body organs, muscles, or tissues.
6. A sudden attack of shivering and coldness with high temperature, called the cold stage, followed by a sense of heat and profuse perspiration, called the hot stage; for example, at the beginning of a fever.
7. A shivering or shaking of the body and limbs occurring in association with a fever of infectious origin; shaking chills.
8. Etymology: from Old French rigor, from Latin rigorem, rigor, "numbness, stiffness, rigor"; from Latin rigere, "to be stiff".
rigor tremens
An earlier term for Parkinson's disease.
rigorism
1. Rigidity in principle or practice, strictness; as opposed to laxity.
2. Harshness or strictness in conduct, judgment, or practice.
3. Adoption of strict morality; for example, in Roman Catholic philosophy, the theory that in matters of moral choice the stricter course of action should be taken.
4. Harshness or strictness in conduct, judgment, or practice.
rigorist
1. Someone who is of strict or rigid principles or manners.

In general, a person who adheres to severity or purity in anything.

2. Characterized by strictness or severity in principles or practice; rigid; strict; exacting.
rigorous (adjective), more rigorous, most rigorous
1. Relating to the strict attention to rules and procedures: The coach of the basketball team usually has rigorous training for the members because he expects them to win more than to lose.
2. Descriptive of someone or something that is exact and does not allow for any deviation from a standard; extremely precise, demanding, and unyielding: Tom's supervisor expected his staff to maintain a rigorous development of what is necessary to have profitable results in the sales of the company's products.
Referring to a strict and rigorous law enforcement.
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rigorously
Referring to being severely exact, stern, inflexible, precise, or accurate; such as, doing rigorous research.
rigour
The Canadian and U.K. spelling of rigor; meaning: the application of precise and exacting standards when doing something.
scleral rigidity
The resistance of the eye to changes in shape with the changes in intraocular pressure of the fluid (vitreous) contained within the eye and exerts on the globe (lining of the eyeball) which is a feature of glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterised by an increase in intraocular pressure which causes pathological changes in the optic disk and typical defects in the field of vision.

spasmodic rigidity
The contraction of uterine musculature just above the cervix (necklike opening to the uterus where a baby or fetus can grow), resulting in relative rigidity of the cervix.
water rigor
The contraction of one or more skeletal muscles caused by immersion into water.