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Stiffening   /stˈɪfənɪŋ/  /stˈɪfnɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Stiffen  v. t.  (past & past part. stiffened; pres. part. stiffening)  
1.
To make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch. "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood."
2.
To inspissate; to make more thick or viscous; as, to stiffen paste.
3.
To make torpid; to benumb.



Stiffen  v. i.  To become stiff or stiffer, in any sense of the adjective. "Like bristles rose my stiffening hair." "The tender soil then stiffening by degrees." "Some souls we see, Grow hard and stiffen with adversity."



noun
Stiffening  n.  
1.
Act or process of making stiff.
2.
Something used to make anything stiff.
Stiffening order (Com.), a permission granted by the customs department to take cargo or ballast on board before the old cargo is out, in order to steady the ship.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Stiffening" Quotes from Famous Books



... Israel ben Oliel, and then they knew that the end was very near. Naomi was still kneeling at his right hand, and the Mahdi was standing at his left. Israel looked at the girl with a world of tenderness, though the hard grip of death was fast stiffening his noble face. More than once he glanced at the Mahdi also as if he wished to say something, and yet could not do so, because the power of life was low; but at last his ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... see him nearer, and marked the stiffening of his body and the slight toss-up of his head, as he noted the number and the exact character of his guests, their spirits fell again, for he was certainly a broken man, however much he might seek to disguise it. Yet there was something in this extraordinary ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green

... baby! She was stiffening like a rod before his very eyes. How did his words explain his having his arm round the unfortunate child? His conscience was so clean that the dear little man actually overlooked the fact that it wasn't my presence in ...
— In the Bishop's Carriage • Miriam Michelson

... sudden and terrible tragedy, gazed after him, and saw from out the placid water, sparkling in the bright beams of morning, a pair of arms, with outstretched hands, emerge; a black spot, that was a head, uprose between these stiffening arms, and then, with a horrible cry, the whole disappeared, and the bright water sparkled as placidly as before. The eyes of the terrified Frere, travelling back to the wounded man, saw, midway between this sparkling water and the knife ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... was already so near it that he could not stop. The boat was carried out, the poor Tin Soldier stiffening himself as much as he could, and no one could say that he moved an eyelid. The boat whirled round three or four times, and was full of water to the very edge- it must sink. The Tin Soldier stood up to his neck in water, and the ...
— The Junior Classics, Volume 1 • Willam Patten


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