n 1: the physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend
2: the property of moving with pain or difficulty; "he awoke
with a painful stiffness in his neck"
3: the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by
embarrassment) [syn: awkwardness, clumsiness, gracelessness]
4: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
[syn: severity, harshness, rigor, rigour, inclemency, hardness]