Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun etc. See rigor, etc.

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

  • noun Severity or strictness.
  • noun A trembling or shivering response.
  • noun Character of being unyielding or inflexible.
  • noun Shrewd questioning.
  • noun Higher level of difficulty.
  • noun UK, slang Common misspelling of rigor. An abbreviated form of rigour mortis.

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

  • noun the quality of being valid and rigorous
  • noun excessive sternness
  • noun something hard to endure

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French rigor, from Latin rigor ("stiffness, rigidness, rigor, cold, harshness"), from rigere ("to be rigid"). Compare French rigueur.

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Examples

  • Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigour, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; all their service wherein they made them serve, was with rigour_.

    History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens George W. Williams 1870

  • On the coffee break, if anybody mentions the accident, change the subject, rather than repeat what you have just read, often with wrong information (because journalistic rigour is only applied to journalists, the grapevine is exempt, right?).

    Global Voices in English » Air Bus AF 447: Sorrow, lack of information and sensationalism 2009

  • This lacks integrity, depth and rigour, is unfair to theologians who would not be swayed by lacklustre science (as a one-way ticket) and is disingenuous to religious persons who would (unknowingly) hear only a one-sided view of ˜science 'in Christian student groups.

    The Memory Hole 2005

  • This lacks integrity, depth and rigour, is unfair to theologians who would not be swayed by lacklustre science (as a one-way ticket) and is disingenuous to religious persons who would (unknowingly) hear only a one-sided view of ˜science 'in Christian student groups.

    A Post-Wedge World 2005

  • But today, in the late nineties, as we approach the next millennium and as we think globally, to be world-class institutions our colleges need world-recognised degrees where the academic rigour is at least equal to that of a baccalaureate degree.

    The Business of Education: A Local and Global Enterprise 1998

  • From Wikipedia: Intellectual rigour is an important part, though not the whole, of intellectual honesty — which means keeping one’s convictions in proportion to one’s valid evidence. [

    Think Progress » Republicans use failed terrorist attack as excuse to further delay Dawn Johnsen’s confirmation. 2010

  • I don’t know why intellectual rigour is something to sneer at and yet reality TV is not … it makes no sense to me.

    Modern Fame « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow education secretary, said: Labour supports academic rigour, which is why we included English and maths in performance tables and promoted an increase in the takeup of separate sciences.

    Struggling schools could be taken over by super-heads, says Michael Gove 2011

  • We live in an age of overnight TV era are not, for the most part, attuned to the notion of rigour, to the notion of the thing pursued for its own sake rather than for the celebrity payoff.

    The Guardian World News Luke Jennings 2011

  • Alas! that love is certainly very lukewarm which can be extinguished by so trifling an offence; that scornful rigour, which is displayed so readily, sufficiently shows to me the depth of her affection.

    The Love-Tiff 1622-1673 Moli��re 1647

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