rig·or

(rĭg′ər)

a. Strictness or severity, as in action or judgment: "The desert fostered a closed world of faith and rigor and harsh judgment: almost every decision here could have lethal consequences" (Jeffrey Tayler).

b. A harsh or trying circumstance; a hardship or difficulty: the rigors of working in a coal mine. See Synonyms at difficulty.

c. Archaic A harsh or severe act.

a. Strictness in adhering to standards or a method; exactitude: "To study the brain with scientific rigor, behaviorists logically restricted their experiments to ones in which the brain was the source of measurable effects" (Robert Pollack).

b. A standard or exacting requirement, as of a field of study: the intellectual rigors of advanced mathematics.

3. Medicine Shivering or trembling, as caused by a chill.

4. Physiology A state of rigidity in living tissues or organs that prevents response to stimuli.

5. Obsolete Stiffness or rigidity.

[Middle English rigour, from Old French, from Latin rigor, from rigēre, to be stiff; see reig- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rigor

(ˈraɪɡɔː; ˈrɪɡə)

1. (Medicine) med a sudden feeling of chilliness, often accompanied by shivering: it sometimes precedes a fever

2. (Pathology) pathol rigidity of a muscle; muscular cramp

3. (Zoology) a state of rigidity assumed by some animals in reaction to sudden shock

4. (Botany) the inertia assumed by some plants in conditions unfavourable to growth

[see rigour]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

rig•or

(ˈrɪg ər)

n.

1. the quality of being strict; inflexibility.

2. harshness of judgment or attitude; sternness.

3. hardship of living conditions; austerity: the rigor of wartime existence.

4. a severe or harsh act or circumstance.

5. scrupulous accuracy; precision.

6. severity of weather or climate.

7. a sudden coldness, as that preceding certain fevers; chill.

8. muscular rigidity.

Also, esp. Brit., rig′our.

[1350–1400; Middle English rigour < Latin rigor stiffness =rig(ēre) to be stiff + -or -or¹]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	rigor - something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters" asperity, rigorousness, rigourousness, severeness, severity, rigour, grimness, hardship difficultness, difficulty - the quality of being difficult; "they agreed about the difficulty of the climb" sternness - the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding; "the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable"
	2.	rigor - the quality of being valid and rigorous rigour, validity, cogency believability, credibility, credibleness - the quality of being believable or trustworthy
	3.	rigor - excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp" inclemency, rigorousness, rigourousness, rigour, harshness, severeness, severity, stiffness, hardness sternness, strictness - uncompromising resolution

rigor

noun

1. The fact or condition of being rigorous and unsparing:

austerity, hardness, harshness, rigidity, rigorousness, severity, sternness, strictness, stringency, toughness.

2. Something that obstructs progress and requires great effort to overcome:

asperity, difficulty, hardship, vicissitude (often used in plural).

Idioms: a hard nut to crack, a hard row to hoe, heavy sledding.

Translations

austérité rigueur

amer. per rigour rigore

rigour

(American) rigor (ˈrigə) noun

1. strictness; harshness.

2. (also ˈrigours noun plural) (of weather etc) the state of being very bad or unpleasant, or the hardship caused by this. the rigour(s) of life in the Arctic Circle.

ˈrigorous adjective

1. strict. a rigorous training.

2. harsh; unpleasant. a rigorous climate.

ˈrigorously adverb

ˈrigorousness noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

As the sense of responsibility is always strongest, in proportion as it is undivided, it may be inferred that a single man would be most ready to attend to the force of those motives which might plead for a mitigation of the rigor of the law, and least apt to yield to considerations which were calculated to shelter a fit object of its vengeance.

View in context

I felt, in a fierce rigor of confidence, that if I stood my ground a minute I should cease--for the time, at least-- to have him to reckon with; and during the minute, accordingly, the thing was as human and hideous as a real interview: hideous just because it WAS human, as human as to have met alone, in the small hours, in a sleeping house, some enemy, some adventurer, some criminal.

View in context

Specially in case of laws penal, they ought to have care, that that which was meant for terror, be not turned into rigor; and that they bring not upon the people, that shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, Pluet super eos laqueos; for penal laws pressed, are a shower of snares upon the people.

View in context

She did not know then that it was Love who had come to her briefly, as in a dream before awaking, with the hues of morning on his wings-- that it was Love to whom she was sobbing her farewell as his image was banished by the blameless rigor of irresistible day.

View in context

In the preceding inquiries the powers of the convention have been analyzed and tried with the same rigor, and by the same rules, as if they had been real and final powers for the establishment of a Constitution for the United States.

View in context

It may be that you have discovered, before this, that the rigors of military law and custom melt insensibly away and disappear when a soldier or a regiment or the garrison wants to do something that will please Cathy.

View in context

In the heart of a savage and unknown country, seven hundred miles from the main body of his fellow-adventurers, Stuart had dismissed half of his little number, and was prepared with the residue to brave all the perils of the wilderness, and the rigors of a long and dreary winter.

View in context

Assistant City Planning and Development Coordinator Roy Ryan Rigor said there are about 500 applications submitted to the office weekly even as he reminded those applying for permits to check their documents first before going to their office to make sure these are sufficient to make the transactions faster.

Official advises applicants: Submit complete documents

Rigor told the BusinessMirror that during a recent meeting of the task force, one of the measures discussed was 'a close-out schedule, such that during Philippine holidays, no cruise ships will be allowed to dock.'

Cautious Boracay task force eyes 'close-out' dates for cruise trips

Atlanta, GA, November 26, 2018 --(PR.com)-- Rigor, the only provider of Digital Experience Lifecycle Management solutions, today announced web performance strategies to help retailers during the upcoming holiday season.

Rigor Announces 3 Web Performance Strategies for This Holiday Season

In a press statement, Sherwin Rigor, undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said tourists may still hold parties if these were done indoors and not on the beach.

DENR: Not all parties to be banned when Boracay reopens