v. [f. STIFF a. + -EN5.] To make or become stiff or stiffer.
1. trans. To make stiff or rigid, e.g., by means of starch († also absol.), or by the addition of a lining or a support.
1622. in Chron. Perth, etc. (Maitl. Club), 87. Margaret Melling apprehended for stiffning ruffs and overlays on a Sunday.
1624. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Cl. Line, Wks. (1630), II. 169/1. She wrings, she folds, she pleits, she smoothes, she starches, She stiffens, poakes, and sets and dryes againe.
1860. Ruskin, Unto this Last, ii. § 41. The sands of the Indus and adamant of Golconda may yet stiffen the housings of the charger.
1885. Mag. of Art, Sept., 459/1. A circular plate of thin wrought bronze, stiffened round the edge by a beading.
1892. Proc. Roy. Soc., LII. 347. The strips have a great tendency to warp, and … may be stiffened by sheet brass let into a slot on the under side.
b. Naut. To increase the initial stability of a ship; to render less liable to heel. See STIFF a. 7.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 22. Those strong unexpected Turnadoes … most certainly overset him, if he be not ready stiffen’d with Peru Ballast.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 272. Sixty tons of cargo will stiffen the most cranky vessel.
2. To render stiff in consistency; to thicken, coagulate.
1627. May, Lucan, I. E 6 b. Dy’d is the Ocean, And the waues stiffen’d with congealed blood.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 58 a. Allow one part of Mortar to three of Rubbish…; and when it is laid, the way to stiffen it, is to pound it heartily with the Rammer.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776), I. 348. The polar oceans being almost continually stiffened into ice.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 252. The plastic condition of the language … not as yet stiffened by conventional rules.
b. intr. To become stiff in consistency; to harden. Also fig. with constr. into: To assume a more definite or permanent form or character.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VI. 53. The tender Soil then stiffning by degrees, Shut from the bounded Earth, the bounding Seas.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 732. Stir until the mixture stiffens in cooling.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. 35. These things which in their proper nature are but illustrations, stiffen into essential fact.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiv. 410. The ‘landsitting men’ of Salisbury easily stiffened into the tenants-in-chief of the Great Charter.
1883. Fortn. Rev., Feb., 242. But gradually the favour will stiffen into a right.
3. trans. To make more steadfast, unyielding or obstinate; Mil. to increase the fighting value of a force by the admixture of soldiers of better quality.
a. 1500[?]. Chester Pl., Emiss. Holy Ghost (Shaks. Soc.), I. 130. Nowe will I sende … My ghoste to glade them graciously,… That the[y] maie stiffned be theirby.
1632. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), 26. He thus stiffneth mine enemies still against me.
a. 1677. Barrow, Wks. (1686), III. Serm. xvi. 189. So doth the man become incorrigible, who is settled and stiffened in vice.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 221. His Confessor and Emissary, to plod about, for to stiffen others in the old Romish Superstitions.
1883. Broad Arrow, xxxi. 609. Foreign levies have been ‘stiffened’ before now by volunteers from other countries.
1898. Daily News, 22 Feb., 5/2. The Home Secretary wants stiffening, and the House of Commons ought to stiffen him.
b. intr. To become hard or unyielding in temper.
1732. Neal, Hist. Purit., I. Pref. p. vi. The Bishops stiffened in their behaviour,… and became too severe against their Dissenting brethren.
1914. Daily News, 12 Jan., 8. Military opinion has … stiffened in the last three weeks.
4. trans. To make rigid; to take away the natural suppleness or mobility of (the limbs, joints, muscles, etc.). Also fig.; slang to make a corpse of, kill; Horse-racing, to prevent a horse from doing its best to win.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. i. 7. Stiffen the sinewes, commune [sic] vp the blood.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, IV. 172. The haire stood vp on end On Agamemnon,… And stifned with the like dismay, was Menelaus to.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 177, ¶ 3. I began to find my mind contracted and stiffened by solitude.
1798. Coleridge, Recant., 46. His legs were stiffen’d with dismay.
1883. Manch. Exam., 30 Nov., 5/3. Considerations so powerful as these tend to stiffen the backs of the Chinese.
1888. Daily News, 23 Nov., 7/2. Mr. Burgess threatened to blow my brains out and to ‘stiffen’ me.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 19 Dec., 12/1. Many popular country race-courses have been given up almost entirely to card-sharpers, because the public know that the horses are stiffened.
b. intr. Of persons: To become stiff or rigid; also, to die. Also fig.
1714. Young, Force Relig., II. 130. Fix’d in benumbing care, They stiffen into statues of despair.
1820. J. H. Reynolds, Fancy (1906), 24. I wish’d you’d stiffen—that I might enclose Your royal limbs, and measure to the toes.
1859. Dickens, Christm. Stor., Haunted Ho., i. She [a cataleptic] would stiffen,… on the most irrelevant occasions.
1912. J. L. Myres, Dawn of Hist., x. 221. An indigenous culture which had passed its prime and was already stiffening.
5. trans. To make (a person) formal, cold or constrained in manner; to make (an artistic composition) pedantic, labored or overloaded.
1763. Shenstone, Lett. to S. Davenport, Wks. 1777, III. 347. True taste will never stiffen or over-charge any performance; it will rather be employed to smoothe, simplify, and give that ease on which grace depends.
1781. Cowper, Table-T., 125. I pity Kings … Whom Education stiffens into state.
1863. Gladstone, in Morley, Life, V. vi. (1903), II. 103. The people are, one and all, very easy to get on with, and Windsor, I suppose, stiffens them a little.
b. intr. To become formal, cold or constrained.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 273. Sir Aylmer Aylmer slowly stiffening spoke.
6. a. intr. Of prices, rates of interest, the market, etc.: To become stiffer (see STIFF a. 10 and 19). b. trans. To render (prices, etc.) stiffer.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 407. Barley stiffens in value.
1883. Daily News, 1 Sept., 2/4. The efflux of gold … which would stiffen the short loan market.
1883. Manch. Exam., 8 Dec., 4/1. There was a good demand both for discounts and advances and the rates stiffened up very sensibly.
1898. Daily News, 20 June, 9/5. Prices both of coal and iron have been stiffened.
7. intr. Or wind: To increase in strength or violence.
1844. Hood, Captain’s Cow, 111. A breeze again began to rise, That stiffen’d to a gale.
8. Of an ascent: To become more steep or difficult.
1877. Fraser’s Mag., XVI. 152. The ascent stiffened.
Hence Stiffened ppl. a.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. iii. The juice of life Creepes slowly through my stifned arteries.
1896. Sara J. Duncan, His Honor & a Lady, iii. 41. To lave his stiffened powers of artistic enjoyment in the beauties of the Parthenon.
