(superl.) Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.
(superl.) Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.
(superl.) Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.
(superl.) Not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; as, a stiff adversary.
(superl.) Not natural and easy; formal; constrained; affected; starched; as, stiff behavior; a stiff style.
(superl.) Harsh; disagreeable; severe; hard to bear.
(superl.) Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; -- opposed to crank.
(superl.) Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price.
Example Sentences:
(1) If you turn the bowl upside down, the whites should be stiff enough not to fall out.
(2) The stiffness of the fibre first rose abruptly in response to stretch and then started to decrease linearly while the stretch went on; after the completion of stretch the stiffness decreased towards a steady value which was equal to that during the isometric tetanus at the same sarcomere length, indicating that the enhancement of isometric force is associated with decreased stiffness.
(3) Current methodology for the in vitro determination of aortic and large artery stiffness is reviewed and involves three approaches: (1) the estimation of distensibility by pulse wave velocity measurement; (2) the estimation of distensibility from the fractional diameter change of a given arterial segment by imaging techniques (e.g., angiography, Doppler ultrasound) against pressure change; (3) the estimation of compliance by determining volume change against pressure change in the arterial system during diastolic runoff from the Windkessel model of the circulation.
(4) The maintenance of adequate blood circulation requires a sufficient ventricular contractility; in addition, to eject blood, the ventricles must first receive a sufficient volume, requiring a low diastolic stiffness.
(5) Stiffness was reduced in approximate proportion to the ramp stretch rate, and the reduction was confined largely to the elastic component.
(6) Proof stress, ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and plastic stiffness have been measured and results compared by use of analyses of variance.
(7) In other words, the stiffness of these areas was low and the recovery from deformation was fast.
(8) But the same court also just refused to hear an appeal of a Minnesota woman who's been ordered to pay more than $220,000 for downloading two-dozen songs – a testament to Congress' gift to Hollywood and its allies in the form of absurdly stiff penalties for minor infringement.
(9) The tension-length relation for the unstimulated (passive) cell is also linear between 1r and the elastic limit, but is displaced from the active tension-length curve and is of reduced stiffness.
(10) Bilaterals in summit seasons can be stiff exchanges, where digressions can carry risks: not enough said, too much said.
(11) We measured the stiffness of comparable configurations (1 or 2 bars) under axial compression, four-point-bending in two planes, and torsion.
(12) Tiny, tiny... rodents – some soft and grey, some brown with black stripes, in paintings, posters, wallcharts, thumb-tacked magazine clippings and poorly executed crayon drawings, hurling themselves fatally in their thousands over the cliff of their island home; or crudely taxidermied and mounted, eyes glazed and little paws frozen stiff – on every available surface.
(13) The bone stiffness also correlates strongly with the geometry (area) and slightly with bone mass; however, an unexpectedly low correlation was found between stiffness and density.
(14) Finally, fibrosis may paradoxically reduce passive stiffness if it leads to a thinning of the interventricular septum.
(15) A young male nephrotic patient, who was given small doses of clofibrate for hyperlipaemia, developed muscle pain, stiffness and very high serum levels of muscle enzymes.
(16) Impaired left ventricular stiffness may be an additional criterion for using corinfar in patients with coronary heart disease.
(17) The increase of elastic fibres following denervation and reinnervation represents an obviously meaningful reaction that may compensate for loss of tonic properties of muscle spindles without causing stiffness.
(18) Only the bone-patellar tendon-bone unit had maximum force and stiffness greater than that of the ACL.
(19) The initial stiffness is poorly described by material or catheter gauge.
(20) The stiffness tester and torque meter were found to yield nearly the same measurements of bending deformation for orthodontic wires as small as .007 inch diameter, provided the different bending apparatus are calibrated to each other.
Stiffen
Definition:
(v. t.) To make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch.
(v. t.) To inspissate; to make more thick or viscous; as, to stiffen paste.
(v. t.) To make torpid; to benumb.
(v. i.) To become stiff or stiffer, in any sense of the adjective.
Example Sentences:
(1) Rigidly fixing the pubic symphysis stiffened the model and resulted in principal stress patterns that did not reflect trabecular density or orientations as well as those of the deformable pubic symphysis model.
(2) The results indicate that during non-hypotensive haemorrhage aortic baroreceptor discharge is reduced by two mechanisms: firstly, via constriction and stiffening of aortic smooth muscle and, secondly, via direct effects of the compensatory mechanisms on the baroreceptors.
(3) It endures in the wound that is slow to heal, the disability that isn't going away, the dream that wakes you at night, or the stiffening in your spine when a car backfires down the street.
(4) Clinical specifications: On a local clinical level, the total toothlessness of the elderly presents as: a muscular hypotomy, a loss of the vertical dimension of occlusion, a marked increase in nasal and oral fissures, a stiffening of the articular structures, a great reduction of osteo-mucus in the residual edges, a spreading of the tongue which invades the oral cavity, a loss of occlusive memory, Bearing on therapy and teaching: good clinical observation, constant reference to the medical services, appropriate surgery prior to denture fitting.
(5) They also complained of exercise-induced stiffening and cramps of their leg muscles.
(6) The results indicate that, in chronic vasospasm, stiffening of the noncontractile component of the vasculature takes place as well as alterations in the contractile component, both of which presumably contribute to the shift in resting length-tension relationship and length-contraction relationship of the artery.
(7) More recently, local stiffening of vessels and inhomogeneities in local distensibility have been observed in the carotid artery bifurcation of borderline hypertensives, and the time-dependent variation in local distensibility and compliance has been studied.
(8) The results indicate density-related increases in membrane stiffness and viscosity, shear-thinning viscous behavior, and strain-stiffening elastic behavior.
(9) Drugs have little effect on arterial stiffening, whereas wave reflection can be markedly reduced by agents that dilate peripheral arteries.
(10) The most reliable ethanol withdrawal signs observed were: spontaneous seizure (n = 7), audiogenic seizure (n = 7), tremors (n = 6), tail stiffening (n = 10) and body rigidity (n = 9).
(11) A stiffened dithranol 0.5% ointment was found to be slightly more effective than the best paste hitherto employed.
(12) Because the microhardness of bone is very closely related to its stiffness, this finding indicates that microcalluses are likely to stiffen the trabeculae in which they are formed, even though they may surround unhealed fractures of the cancellous trabeculae.
(13) The curvature and stiffening of the ventral wall of the trachea can be achieved by the implantation of arched homograft cactilage taken from a tissue bank.
(14) There are two main patterns of PV curve in restrictive lung disorders--one due to stiffening of the lung (Fig.
(15) Finally, hypotheses are presented concerning the mechanism of membrane stiffening due to type II modifications of spectrin.
(16) There was always a rueful melancholy, stiffened by irony and leavened by humour about him.
(17) Records of acceleration following a displacement showed a series of decrementing swings which could last for more than 10 s. The imposition of sinusoidal torques generated by a printed motor showed that the system was non-linear for when small torques were used the resonant frequency rose indicating stiffening.
(18) Carbamazepine also alleviated alcohol withdrawal symptoms, especially heightened spontaneous activity, startle to noise, stereotyped chewing movements, and intermittent body stiffening.
(19) The metallic-weighted tips and stiffening introducing stylets create the potential for misplacement with potentially serious consequences.
(20) This increase encompasses both the clinically normal and hypertensive ranges of pressure and is due in part to arterial stiffening.