[f. STIFFEN v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb; the process of making or becoming stiff; concr. a stiffened substance.
1614. J. Taylor (Water P.), Nipping Abuses, B 3 b. I cannot Item it [a tailor’s bill] … For cutting, edging, stiffning and for lacing.
1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm., I. iv. 44. Like the joynts of a bulrush, not bendings, but consolidations and stiffenings.
1799. Report. Arts & Manuf., X. 284. The fourth and last operation of hat-making; namely, stiffening.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 Oct., 12/1. The stiffening of the Egyptian army with a body of English volunteers.
1909. D. Fulton, trans. P. Cohnheim’s Dis. Digest. Canal, 8. It is especially important to recognize abnormally increased peristalsis, the so-called ‘stiffenings’ of the stomach, small intestine or colon.
2. Something that serves to stiffen.
1620. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Hemp-seed (1623), 28. Being edgd with Items, stiffnings, facings, With Bumbast, Cottens, linings, and with lacings.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 79. The solids were preadapted by the divine power to form the foundation, or the stiffnings (if I may so say) of the globe.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 505. Lac is extensively used as a stiffening for hats.
b. An admixture of soldiers of better quality.
1900. Daily Mail, 3 May, 6/6. The column … consisted chiefly of Yeomanry, with a stiffening of Cape Police.
1915. J. Buchan, Hist. War, VII. lix. 151. Only the German stiffening kept them [the Austrians] to their work.
3. attrib., as stiffening-brush, -girder, -rib; stiffening-order (see quot.).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 386/1. A Felt makers *Stiffning Brush.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stiffening-girder, a truss girder which distributes the weight of the platform and load upon the suspension-chain and prevents undulation.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stiffening-order, a permission granted by the Customs’ to take on board heavy goods, by way of ballast, to steady the ship.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, App. 26. The distance between the *stiffening ribs measured on a slope of 45°.
