1. The physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend 
2. The property of moving with pain or difficulty
   "he awoke with a painful stiffness in his neck" 
3. Firm resoluteness in purpose or opinion or action
   "a charming host without any touch of stiffness or pomposity" 
4. The inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)
   - awkwardness, clumsiness, gracelessness 
5. Excessive sternness
   - severity, severeness, harshness, rigor [US], rigour [Brit, Cdn], rigorousness, rigourousness [Brit, non-standard], inclemency, hardness

Derived forms: stiffnesses

See also: stiff

Type of: awkwardness, clumsiness, firmness, firmness of purpose, inelasticity, inelegance, resoluteness, resolution, resolve, sternness, strictness

Encyclopedia: Stiffness

• reappointment
• reapportion
• reapportionment
• reappraisal
• reappraise
• rear
• rear admiral
• rear back
• rear lamp
• rear light
• rear of barrel
• rear of tube
• rear window
• rear-end
• rearguard
• rearing
• rearm
• rearmament
• rearmost
• rearrange
• rearrangement
• rearrest
• rearview mirror
• rearward
• rearwards