Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not flexible or pliant; stiff: synonym: stiff.
  • adjective Not moving or flexing.
  • adjective Not changing or adjusting to different conditions or problems.
  • adjective Scrupulously or severely maintained or performed; rigorous or harsh.
  • adjective Being an airship with a external frame made of rigid parts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Stiff; not pliant or easily bent; not plastic or easily molded; resisting any change of form when acted upon by force; hard.
  • Not easily driven back or thrust out of place; unyielding; firm.
  • Not easily wrought upon or affected; inflexible; hence, harsh; severe; rigorous; rigorously framed or executed: as, a rigid sentence; rigid criticism.
  • Strict in opinion, conduct, discipline, or observance; uncompromising; scrupulously exact or exacting: as, a rigid disciplinarian; a rigid Calvinist.
  • Stiff in outline or aspect; harsh; hard; rugged; without smoothness, softness, or delicacy of appearance.
  • Sharp; severe; bitter; cruel.
  • In dynamics: Absolutely incapable of being strained.
  • Resisting stresses.
  • Synonyms and Severe, Rigorous, etc. (see austere), inflexible, unbending, unyielding.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Firm; stiff; unyielding; not pliant; not flexible.
  • adjective Hence, not lax or indulgent; severe; inflexible; strict

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Stiff, rather than flexible.
  • adjective Fixed, rather than moving.
  • adjective Rigorous and unbending.
  • adjective Uncompromising.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective incapable of compromise or flexibility
  • adjective fixed and unmoving
  • adjective designating an airship or dirigible having a form maintained by a stiff unyielding frame or structure
  • adjective incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances
  • adjective incapable of or resistant to bending

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rigide, from Latin rigidus, from rigēre, to be stiff; see reig- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rigidus ("stiff"), from rigere ("to be stiff"), probably originally "to be straight"; compare rectus ("straight"), from regere ("to stretch"); see regent and right. Compare rigor.

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Examples

  • Two full seconds passed before Myles spoke, his expression rigid.

    The Good House Tananarive Due 2003

  • On the basis of the fact that, unlike (9), (10) can serve to express two distinct counterfactual beliefs, Kripke (1972) hypothesizes that a proper name is what he calls a rigid designator.

    Intentionality Jacob, Pierre 2003

  • But he said he will not make a decision on a matter like stem cells based on what he called a rigid, ideological approach.

    unknown title 2009

  • But he said he will not make a decision on a matter like stem cells based on what he called a rigid, ideological approach.

    WNDU - Home - Headlines 2009

  • But he said he will not make a decision on a matter like stem cells based on what he called a rigid, ideological approach.

    unknown title 2009

  • But he said he will not make a decision on a matter like stem cells based on what he called a rigid, ideological approach.

    unknown title 2009

  • Textbooks are not timelines — they do not go in rigid year by yearorder.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Taking the Washington Post to School 2010

  • Textbooks are not timelines — they do not go in rigid year by year order.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Taking the Washington Post to School 2010

  • But your choice to be ideologically rigid is not one I am going to ignore.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The “Racist” Charge 2010

  • But it moves guilt from being a moral issue, bound up in rigid rules and regulations, to being an ethical problem, complex and flexible in relation to the other person and what may be considered their due.

    Agatha Christie and Guilt « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

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