rigor

RIG'OR, noun [Latin from rigeo, to be stiff. 1. Stiffness; rigidness; as Gorgonian rigor 2. In medicine, a sense of chilliness, with contradiction of the skin; a convulsive shuddering or slight tremor, as in the cold fit of a fever. 3. Stiffness of opinion or temper; severity; sternness. All his rigor is turned to grief and pity. 4. Severity of life; austerity; voluntary submission to pain, abstinence or mortification. 5. Strictness; exactness without allowance, latitude or indulgence; as the rigor of criticism; to execute a law with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor 6. violence; fury. [Not in use.] 7. Hardness; solidity. [Unusual.] 8. Severity; asperity; as the rigors of a cold winter.