2. (Med.)
Defn: See 1st Rigor, 2.
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 Ant: 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.
RIGORISM
Rig"or*ism, n.
1. Rigidity in principle or practice; strictness; — opposed to laxity.