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  1. rigor mortis love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Muscular stiffening following death.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Temporary stiffness of a body's muscles and joints following death.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. death stiffening; the rigidity of the muscles that occurs at death and lasts till decomposition sets in. It is due to the formation of myosin by the coagulation of the contents of the individual muscle fibers.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. muscular stiffening that begins 2 to 4 hours after death and lasts for about 4 days
  2. n. temporary stiffness of joints and muscular rigidity occurring after death

Etymologies

  1. Latin : rigor, stiffness + mortis, genitive of mors, death. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “It was spreadeagled with rigor mortis and the body had swelled enough in decomposition so that buttons had started to pop off the shirt, which the night before had been pajama-loose.”

    1968

  • “The pathologist uses various time-dependent processes to estimate the time of death: the body cools at a characteristic rate, rigor mortis sets in at a particular time, and so on.”

    Simon & Schuster: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

  • “A quick cut; then Pretty Boy Christopher, naked and hard, pointing his thing at the camera, the head nearly eclipsing the screen like a giant battering ram, white background borders looking just like parted lips and teeth holding the image intact through rigor mortis —”

    The Big Nowhere

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hypernyms (6)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. rigidifying
  1. rigidification
  1. stiffening
  1. physiological state
  1. physical condition
  1. physiological condition

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. rigor caloris

tags (2)

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  1. death
  1. hot sauce

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  • hernesheir The name of a hot pepper sauce. Sep 22, 2009

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‘rigor mortis’ has been looked up 1390 times, loved by 1 person, added to 24 lists, commented on 1 time, and is not a valid Scrabble word.