STIFFENING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Stiffening

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/stˈɪfənɪŋ/ /stˈɪfnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Stiffen v. t. (past & past part. stiffened; pres. part. stiffening)

To make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch. "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood."

To inspissate; to make more thick or viscous; as, to stiffen paste.

To make torpid; to benumb.

Stiffen v. i. To become stiff or stiffer, in any sense of the adjective. "Like bristles rose my stiffening hair." "The tender soil then stiffening by degrees." "Some souls we see, Grow hard and stiffen with adversity."

noun

Stiffening n.

Act or process of making stiff.

Something used to make anything stiff.

Stiffening order (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.

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Etymology of 'Stiffening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stiffening" Quotes from Famous Books

... up. Well, he would do all the damage he could before the stiffening limb permitted Garman to catch him in that horrible gorilla ...

— The Plunderer • Henry Oyen

... stiffening her figure to its full height, her dark-red hair falling in ruffling ringlets about her ears and neck, as she rubbed her arm where his hand had left ...

— The One Woman • Thomas Dixon

... somewhat but not greatly less romantic than those which first lifted him above the flood. He came during a moment of national expansiveness. Patriotism and jingoism, altruism and imperialism, passion and sentimentalism shook the temper which had been slowly stiffening since the Civil War. Now, with a rush of unaccustomed emotions, the national imagination sought out its own past, luxuriating in it, not to say wallowing ...

— Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) • Carl Van Doren

... me, she's gone," I said. "Oh! what a boy," and she kissed me, saying, "let me go now—your mamma is coming." It came into my mind that I had had my hand up her clothes, and had felt hair between her legs. My prick stiffening in thinking of a women. I clutched her hard, put one hand on to her and did something I know not what. She said: "You are rude, Wattie." Then I pinched her and said: "Oh! what a big bosom you have." "Hish! hish!" said she. She was a tallish woman with brown hair; I have heard my mother ...

— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous

... Madame," replied the captain, kneeling. He gently loosed the sword from the stiffening fingers. The master ...

— The Grey Cloak • Harold MacGrath

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