rigour

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

rigour (countable and uncountable, plural rigours)

  1. Severity or strictness.
    • 1611, King James Version, Exodus 1:13–14:
      And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
  2. A trembling or shivering response.
  3. Character of being unyielding or inflexible.
  4. Shrewd questioning.
  5. Higher level of difficulty.
  6. (Britain, slang) Misspelling of rigor. An abbreviated form of rigour mortis.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Further reading

  • rigour in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • rigour in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.