- the physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend
- the property of moving with pain or difficulty;
"he awoke with a painful stiffness in his neck"
- firm resoluteness in purpose or opinion or action;
"a charming host without any touch of stiffness or pomposity"
- the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)
- excessive sternness;
"severity of character" "the harshness of his punishment was inhuman" "the rigors of boot camp"