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KJV Dictionary Definition: stiff

stiff

STIFF, a. Gr.

1. Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not flaccid; rigid; applicable to any substance; as stiff wood; stiff paper; cloth stiff with starch; a limb stiff with frost.

They, rising on stiff pinions, tower the mid aerial sky.

2. Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; not soft nor hard. Thus melted metals grow stiff as they cool; they are stiff before they are hard. The paste is too stiff, or not stiff enough.

3. Strong; violent; impetuous in motion; as in seamens language, a stiff gale or breeze.

4. Hardy; stubborn; not easily subdued.

How stiff is my vile sense!

5. Obstinate; pertinacious; firm in perseverance or resistance.

It is a shame to stand stiff in a foolish argument.

A war ensues; the Cretans own their cause, stiff to defend their hospitable laws.

6. Harsh; formal; constrained; not natural and easy; as a stiff formal style.

7. Formal in manner; constrained; affected; starched; not easy or natural; as stiff behavior.

The French are open, familiar and talkative; the Italians stiff, ceremonious and reserved.

8. Strongly maintained, or asserted with good evidence.

This is stiff news.

9. In seamens language, a stiff vessel is one that will bear sufficient sail without danger of oversetting.

stiffness

STIFFNESS, n.

1. Rigidness; want of pliableness or flexibility; the firm texture or state of a substance which renders it difficult to bend it; as the stiffness or iron or wood; the stiffness of a frozen limb.

2. Thickness; spissitude; a state between softness and hardness; as the stiffness of sirup, paste, size or starch.

3. Torpidness; inaptitude to motion.

An icy stiffness benumbs my blood.

4. Tension; as the stiffness of a cord.

5. Obstinacy; stubbornness; contumaciousness.

The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too.

Stiffness of mind is not from adherence to truth, but submission to prejudice.

6. Formality of manner; constraint; affected precision.

All this religion sat easily upon him, without stiffness and constraint.

7. Rigorousness; harshness.

But speak no word to her of these sad plights, which her too constant stiffness doth constrain.

8. Affected or constrained manner of expression or writing; want of natural simplicity and ease; as stiffness of style.