2. (ed.) A sense of chilliness, with contraction of the skin;
a convulsive shuddering or tremor, as in the chill
preceding a fever.
{Rigor caloris}[L., rigor of heat] (Physiol.), a form of
rigor mortis induced by heat, as when the muscle of a
mammal is heated to about 50[deg]C.
{Rigor mortis}[L., rigor of death], 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.
The rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to
move. --Milton.
3. Severity of climate or season; inclemency; as, the rigor
of the storm; the rigors of winter.
4. Stiffness of opinion or temper; rugged sternness;
hardness; relentless severity; hard-heartedness; cruelty.
All his rigor is turned to grief and pity. --Denham.
If I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises, . . . I tell
you 'T is rigor and not law. --Shak.
5. Exactness without allowance, deviation, or indulgence;
strictness; as, the rigor of criticism; to execute a law
with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor; -- opposed
to {lenity}.
6. Severity of life; austerity; voluntary submission to pain,
abstinence, or mortification.
The prince lived in this convent with all the rigor
and austerity of a capuchin. --Addison.
7. Violence; force; fury. [Obs.]
Whose raging rigor neither steel nor brass could
stay. --Spenser.
Syn: Stiffness; rigidness; inflexibility; severity;
austerity; sternness; harshness; strictness; exactness.