STIFFENING • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... I answered, glancing at the sunshine which streamed down the open companion-way. "Fair westerly breeze, with a promise of stiffening, if Louis predicts correctly." ...

— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London

... while the night was still young. And for seven other hours the one-car special inched its way cautiously toward the goal, with Ford scanning every mile of the hazardous way as it swung into the beam of the headlight arc, with Hector's left hand stiffening on the brake-cock, and with a weary fireman dropping from his gangway at every curve approach to ...

— Empire Builders • Francis Lynde

... Ggaran, his tentacles stiffening with shock at the memory. "You bloody-minded Earthlings must have been ...

— Upstarts • L. J. Stecher

... at the eaves and so dark that we could seldom stand upright, nor see without a candle. Upon the attic floor a map was roughly drawn in chalks of different colors, with mountains, rivers, towns, bridges, and roads of two classes. Here we would play by the hour, with tingling fingers and stiffening knees, and an intentness, zest, and excitement ...

— The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls • Jacqueline M. Overton

... Weedon Moore, that's all," he ventured, and then, in the stiffening of her whole body, he saw it was a mistake even to mention Moore. Her large charity made her fiercely partisan. He ventured the audacious personal appeal. "Give me some, Amabel, if you've really got so much. Let ...

— The Prisoner • Alice Brown

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