STIFFEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stiffen mean? 

• STIFFEN (verb)
  The verb STIFFEN has 3 senses:

1. become stiff or stiffer

2. make stiff or stiffer

3. severely restrict in scope or extent

  Familiarity information: STIFFEN used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STIFFEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they stiffen    ... he / she / it stiffens   
Past simple: stiffened   
Past participle: stiffened   
-ing form: stiffening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become stiff or stiffer

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

He stiffened when he saw his boss enter the room

Hypernyms (to "stiffen" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stiffen"):

rigidify (become rigid)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Antonym:

loosen (become loose or looser or less tight)

Derivation:

stiffening (the act of becoming stiff)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make stiff or stiffer

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Stiffen the cream by adding gelatine

Hypernyms (to "stiffen" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Cause:

stiffen (become stiff or stiffer)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stiffen"):

starch (stiffen with starch)

buckram (stiffen with or as with buckram)

ossify; petrify; rigidify (make rigid and set into a conventional pattern)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

loosen (make loose or looser)

Derivation:

stiffener (material used for stiffening something)

stiffening (the process of becoming stiff or rigid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Severely restrict in scope or extent

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

constrain; stiffen; tighten; tighten up

Context example:

stiffen the regulations

Hypernyms (to "stiffen" is one way to...):

bound; confine; limit; restrict; throttle; trammel (place limits on (extent or amount or access))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

“Fair westerly breeze, with a promise of stiffening, if Louis predicts correctly.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Forgotten, save once, when old One Eye stopped for a moment to lick his stiffening wounds.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then he awoke, in pain from his stiffened muscles and chilled by the mountain wind that had begun to blow in through the window.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

My eyes are dim, and I must stiffen my soul to see.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But whenever any of us are taken away our joints at once stiffen, and we can only stand straight and look pretty.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

This study shows the same is true in our brains, and that age-related brain stiffening has a significant impact on the function of brain stem cells.

(Cambridge scientists reverse ageing process in rat brain stem cells, University of Cambridge)

If we could stiffen up that cell with a drug, maybe it wouldn't move anymore.

(Materials, like metallic glass, can help us understand how cells break, NSF)

The girl emptied the stiffened mould into my hand, and I devoured it ravenously.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing cries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes before it also stiffened and lay still.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was limp with horror; but stiffened herself to make a dart at me, and take it out of my arms.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)