Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RIG'OR, n. [L. from rigeo, to be stiff; Fr. rigueur.]

1. Stiffness; rigidness; as, Gorgonian rigor. – Milton.
2. In medicine, a sense of chilliness, with contraction of the skin; a convulsive shuddering or slight tremor, as in the cold fit of a fever. – Coxe. Encyc. Parr.
3. Stiffness of opinion or temper; severity; sternness. All his rigor is turned to grief and pity. – Denham.
4. Severity of life; austerity; voluntary submission to pain, abstinence or mortification. – Fell.
5. Strictness; exactness without allowance, latitude or indulgence; as, the rigor of criticism; to execute a law with rigor; to enforce moral duties with rigor.
6. Violence; fury. [Not in use.] – Spenser.
7. Hardness; solidity. [Unusual.] – Dryden.
8. Severity; asperity; as the rigors of a cold winter.