rigour
(ˈrɪgə(r))
Forms: 4–6 rygour(e, 6 r(e)ygur, 5–7 rygor (5 -ore); 5–6 rigoure (5 rigur), 4– rigour, 4–9 (now U.S.) rigor.
[a. OF. rigor, rigour (13th c.; mod.F. rigueur), = Sp. and Pg. rigor, It. rigore, ad. L. rigor rigor.]
I. 1. Severity in dealing with a person or persons; extreme strictness; harshness.
| c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 47 Pacience..venquysseth..Thynges þat rigour sholde neuere atteyne. 14.. in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 97 Sothfast kyng..To repentaunt by rygour not vengeable. c 1460 Sir R. Ros La Belle Dame 720 What vayleth you to schew so gret rygour? 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 2 Preamble, Of his pitie intending to reduce theym therunto by softer meanes then by such extreme rigour. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 193 Their rygour and fiercenesse ageynst suche as stoobernly contemned them. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxvi. §8 If..they haue tempered rigour with lenitie. a 1648 Digby Voy. Medit. (Camden) 30 Such is the effect of gentlenesse and faire wordes after rigour vpon a iust ground, with the vulgar. 1690 Locke Gov. ii. vi. §67 There is little Fear that Parents should use their Power with too much Rigor. 1757 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 395 Some of high rank in the Navy..declare they will not serve under the rigor of so hard and unequitable a law. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. vii. (1782) I. 226 The rigour of the one was tempered by the other's clemency. 1822 Scott Peveril viii, His rights as a creditor, he had hitherto used with gentleness; but if he should employ rigour [etc.]. 1878 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xii, Rigour was past, and tenderness had not come. |
b. An instance of this; a harsh or severe action or proceeding.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 16 b, This was a greate rigor and extremitie, for the seruaunt to vse agaynst the Master. 1578 Fenton Guicciard. i. (1618) 50 The remembrance of many rigors which his father Ferdinand had vsed against them. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 33 At that time the Ecclesiastical Rigours here were in the highest ferment. a 1734 North Examen i. iii. §164 Many affect Rigors, and will apply them in all Cases, but of themselves and their Partisans. 1786 Burke Art. agst. W. Hastings Wks. II. 122 All the rigours practised upon the chief ministers..being found ineffectual. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon, Those who smarted under the immediate rigours of the new monarch, pardoned them. 1874 S. Cox Pilgr. Ps. 107 By the rigours of bondage they might be constrained to repent. |
2. The strict terms, application, or enforcement
of some law, rule, etc.
| 1427 Rolls of Parlt. V. 409/2 That thenne the rygour of the Statut be executed. c 1430 Lydg. Minor Poems (Percy Soc.) 77 Almesdede shal make achevisaunce, T'exclude by grace the rigour of vengeaunce. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iii. xxi. 221 Suche a man..ought not to be spared, but al rygoure of rudnesse be doon to hym. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 25, I haif determit to use agains thame the rigour of jugement. 1610 Heywood Gold. Age i. i, One louely boy Hath felt the rigor of that strict decree. 1673 Essex P. (Camden) 89 Should there be any Lands of y⊇ Northumberland family w{supc}{suph}, in rigor of law, revert to y⊇ Crowne upon y⊇ failure of an Heir Male. 1791 Burke App. Whigs Wks. 1808 VI. 9 They never intended to execute those declarations in their rigour. 1821 Lamb Elia i. Mrs. Battle's opinions on whist, A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the game. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. ii. Let ‘Domiciliary visits’, with rigour of authority, be made to this end. |
b. esp. in
phr. the (..) rigour of the law.
| 1479 Paston Lett. III. 239 To shew un to yow the rigur of the lawe. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 58 b, With mercie to mitigate all rigor of the lawe. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 199, I doe beseech your Royall Maiestie, Let him haue all the rigor of the Law. 1637 R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose i. 18 Ful performance of duty according to the extreme rigour of the law. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. Summary N 2 b, Not to take the just rigour of the Law of England,..but take reasonable satisfaction. 1831 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 330 The party offending should..be..proceeded with to the utmost rigour of the law. |
† c. ellipt. in the same sense.
Obs.| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 88 Be the rygour he has tynt his hede. Ibid., The prince..may do him sum favour that he be nocht all punyst be the rigour. 1700 Pennsylv. Arch. I. 137, I will have him proceeded against..to y⊇ utmost Rigour. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) II. 415 The setting fines on their husbands to the rigour would make all the estates of the country be at mercy. |
† 3. Hardness of heart; obduracy.
Obs.—1| c 1460 Play Sacram. 822 Thowgh we haue be vnryghtfulle, forgyf vs our rygore. |
4. Of weather or climate: Severity; extremity or excess of cold;
† violence (of storms).
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 26 b, Such is the power of the wynd, and suche is the rigoure of the tempest. Ibid., Hen. VI, 181 A Croune whiche did hang in the middell.., without touche of any creature, or rigor of wynd, sodainly fell doune. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 147 The snowe..keeping it warme from the rigor of the frost. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. (1675) 67 In Winter, when it needs their shelter from the Rigors of that cold season. 1741–2 Gray Agrip. 109 The rigour Of bleak Germania's snows. 1771 Ann. Reg. 99/2 The present severity and extreme rigour of the weather is..very remarkable. 1851 Carlyle Sterling iii. iv. (1872) 197 The rigours of spring were always dangerous to him in England. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 209 From regions of Arctic rigour. |
b. Extreme distress or hardship.
| 1769 Charact. in Ann. Register 13/2 By this time, the besieged endured the utmost rigour of famine. 1836–7 Dickens Sk. Boz (C.D. ed.) 223 Alleviating the rigour of her condition by pecuniary donations for her comfort. |
5. Strictness
of discipline, etc.; austerity of life; an instance of this.
| c 1440 Alph. Tales 11 Sho..kepyd diligentlie emang hur susters þe rigur of disciplyne. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 262 b, That it is impossyble for vs to perseuer and contynue in suche rygour & streytnesse of lyuyng. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 79 Seeing I cannot by reason restraine your importunate suite, I will by rygour done on my selfe, cause you to refraine the meanes. 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 220 The Holy Fathers did lay on him several Degrees of Rigors, before they would take him in again. 1684 Burnet tr. More's Utopia 94 To undergo much Pain, many Hardships, and other Rigours. 1705 Addison Italy 524 This Prince..liv'd in this Convent with all the Rigor and Austerity of a Capucin. 1833 L. Ritchie Wand. by Loire 120 The rigour of the monastic discipline speedily terminated her life. |
b. Puritanic severity or strictness; rigorism;
† an instance of this.
| 1597 Dowland's First Bk. Songs in Arb. Garner IV. 39 The ice of her indurate heart, Whose frozen rigour..Feels never any touch of my desert. 1634 Milton Comus 107 Rigor now is gon to bed, And Advice with scrupulous head,..Age, and..Severity, With their grave Saws in slumber ly. 1650 Trapp Comm. Deut. ii. 5 It is therefore a rigour, to say, the wicked are usurpers of what they have. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (J.), Rigour makes it difficult for sliding virtue to recover. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 321 What vice has it [satire] subdu'd? whose heart reclaim'd By rigour, or whom laugh'd into reform? 1835 Thirlwall Greece I. ix. 352 The emergencies of the war had induced the Spartans to relax the rigour of their principles. |
6. Strict accuracy, severe exactitude.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Accipio, Ad verbum accipere, to take the rigour of the woorde: to take the woorde as it lyeth. 1594 R. Parsons Confer. Success. i. vi. 132 As this man in rigour is not truly mayor,..nor the other is properly Emperor. a 1614 Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 127 Our soule..in rigour is murdered by every sinne consented unto. a 1665 J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867) 215 This word, in the rigour of the grammatical signification of it, is not always used for interceding for another. 1774 Mitford Ess. Harmony Lang. 271 Either the value of the syllable is taken with the utmost rigor, or with latitude. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. iii. (1877) I. 61 Sciences which the term philosophy exclusively denotes, when employed in propriety and rigour. 1879 Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §77 Hence we may with perfect rigour conclude that even the extreme case..is included in the general theorem. |
II. 7. = rigor 1.
| 1541 Elyot Cast. Helthe 48 In palseys, or apoplexies, or agaynst the rigour, whiche hapneth in feuers. 1543 Traheron tr. Vigo's Chirurg. 96 b/1 Whyche cause rigours, fieuers, spasmes. 1676 Wiseman Surg. Treat. vi. App. ii. 444 The Part is first benummed,..and a Horrour and Rigour seizeth upon the Patient. 1754 Smellie Midwifery III. 180 A fever intervened, with irregular horrors and rigours. 1776 Sir G. Baker in E. S. Thompson Influenza (1890) 80 Some few had, in the beginning, successive rigours. 1890 Stevenson Let. to Dr. Scott 20 Jan., I find it at once produces a glow, stops rigour. |
| transf. 1859 Sala Gaslight & D. xxvi. 297 Shall the young lady in the apartment next to mine string my nerves into the rigours? |
† 8. Of material objects: Stiffness, hardness.
Obs.| 1578 Banister Hist. Man vii. 90 That so, the outer might defend the inner Membran..from the rigour of the ribbes. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 297 The rest his look Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. i. 539 The stones..Did first the rigour of their kind expel, And suppled into softness as they fell. |