rigor

rigor

 [rig´or, ri´gor]

1. a chill; rigidity.

2. strict discipline or scrupulous adherence to a given set of standards.

rigor mor´tis the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers.

ri·gid·i·ty

(ri-jid'i-tē),

1. Stiffness or inflexibility.
See also: nuchal rigidity. Synonym(s): rigor (1)

2. In psychiatry and clinical psychology, an aspect of personality characterized by a person's resistance to change.
See also: nuchal rigidity.

3. In neurology, one type of increase in muscle tone at rest; characterized by increased resistance to passive stretch, independent of velocity and symmetric about joints; increases with activation of corresponding muscles in the contralateral limb. Two basic types are cogwheel rigidity and lead-pipe rigidity.
See also: nuchal rigidity.

[L. rigidus, rigid, inflexible]

rigor

/rig·or/ (rig´er) [L.] chill; rigidity.

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rigor mor´tis  the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers.

rigor

(rĭg′ər)

n.

1.

a. Strictness or severity, as in action or judgment: "The desert fostered a closed world of faith and rigor and harsh judgment: almost every decision here could have lethal consequences" (Jeffrey Tayler).

b. A harsh or trying circumstance; a hardship or difficulty: the rigors of working in a coal mine.

c. Archaic A harsh or severe act.

2.

a. Strictness in adhering to standards or a method; exactitude: "To study the brain with scientific rigor, behaviorists logically restricted their experiments to ones in which the brain was the source of measurable effects" (Robert Pollack).

b. A standard or exacting requirement, as of a field of study: the intellectual rigors of advanced mathematics.

3. Medicine Shivering or trembling, as caused by a chill.

4. Physiology A state of rigidity in living tissues or organs that prevents response to stimuli.

5. Obsolete Stiffness or rigidity.

rigor

[rig′ər]

Etymology: L, stiffness

1 a rigid condition of the body tissues, as in rigor mortis.

2 a violent attack of shivering that may be associated with chills and fever.

Stiffness of a cadaver. The following are crude approximations of the time of death, based on temperature and presence/absence of rigor
warm and flaccid < 3 hours
warm and stiff 3-8 hours
cold and stiff 8-36 hours
cold and flaccid > 36 hours

chill

(chil)

1. A sensation of cold.

2. A feeling of cold with shivering and pallor, accompanied by an elevation of temperature in the interior of the body; usually a prodromal symptom of an infectious disease due to the presence in the blood of foreign protein or toxins.
Synonym(s): rigor (2) .

[A.S. cele, cold]

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ri·gid·i·ty

(ri-jid'i-tē)

1. Stiffness or inflexibility.
Synonym(s): rigor (1) .

2. psychiatry, clinical psychology An aspect of personality characterized by a person's resistance to change.

3. neurology One type of increase in muscle tone at rest; characterized by increased resistance to passive stretch, independent of velocity and symmetric about joints; increases with activation of corresponding muscles in the contralateral limb. Two basic types are cogwheel rigidity and leadpipe rigidity.
See also: nuchal rigidity

[L. rigidus, rigid, inflexible]

rigor

A violent attack of shivering causing a rapid rise in body temperature.

rigor

a subjective sensation of feeling cold, accompanied by muscle tremor, characteristic of the increment stage of fever. Because of its subjectivity it is not a term that can be used in animal medicine.

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rigor complexes

formed when actin and myosin bond together strongly in the absence of ATP; occurs in rigor mortis.

rigor mortis

the stiffening of a dead body accompanying depletion of adenosine triphosphate in the muscle fibers.