stiffness

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   firm resoluteness in purpose or opinion or action

   A charming host without any touch of stiffness or pomposity.

2. 2
   noun

   the property of moving with pain or difficulty

   They awoke with a painful stiffness in their neck.

3. 3
   noun

   Inelegance; a lack of relaxedness.

   His stiffness hampered the conversation.

4. 4
   noun

   Muscular tension due to unaccustomed or excessive exercise or work; soreness.

   Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), often referred to by doctors today as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is a type of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and stiffness for more than six weeks in a child aged 16 or younger. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States. Inflammation causes redness, swelling, warmth, and soreness in the joints, although many children with JRA do not complain of joint pain.

From Middle English stiffenes, styffenesse, styfnesse; equivalent to stiff + -ness. Perhaps merging with Middle English stithnesse, stithnysse, from Old English stīþness (“stiffness”).

Topics