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What is "rigid"

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rigid
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
rigid
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be bored stiff/silly/rigid (=extremely bored)
▪ Patti was bored stiff with small-town Massachusetts life.
strict/rigid/slavish adherence
▪ strict adherence to Judaic law
tight/rigid controls (=strict controls)
▪ the introduction of tighter controls on immigration
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ White as a sheet, and holding his arms out as rigid as a shelf.
▪ That means the traditional office layout of lined-up cubicles and work stations is seen as rigid and unimaginative.
▪ Group norms and values will act as constraints and even informal rules can be as rigid as formal rules.
▪ Without this adjustability, the neural circuitry would be as rigid as that in our consumer electronics.
▪ She froze, unable to move suddenly, her body as rigid as the pretty statuette she clung to.
▪ As a result, the gun-barrel feels as rigid as if it were cast in concrete.
▪ In Television, at this time, line discipline was as rigid as for twice-nightly, weekly rep in the Theatre.
▪ Above, I am as rigid as a monument; below, smooth fluidity.
less
▪ But at the level of field studies there was a much less rigid distinction between professional and amateur.
▪ It means less rigid structures in planning.
▪ But Schro der's leftwing government adopted a less rigid stance on foreign currency.
▪ In fact, the government's policy from 1982 onwards became somewhat less rigid.
▪ The plasma membrane is also thought to be far less rigid a structure than originally proposed.
▪ In the Low Country the link between social status and government appointments was less rigid, but nevertheless important.
▪ As expected, there were strong regional voting patterns, although these appeared a little less rigid than in the 1988 election.
more
▪ The arteries, much more rigid than veins and buried deeper in the body, are unaffected.
▪ Statute-based rules thus tend to be both more powerful and also more rigid.
▪ This may mean becoming even more rigid and defensive about receiving help.
▪ Some are ruled by single females, in a society even more rigid than that of a beehive.
▪ Over time, the organization becomes more rigid and the culture more uniform.
▪ Gradually, it became more rigid.
▪ Nevertheless, current grammatical freedom is unpalatable to many educated in a more rigid era.
most
▪ A honeycomb provides the most rigid structure with lightest weight.
▪ This was provided for by at once exacting the most rigid discipline and order...
▪ In the west it is the Roman Catholic Church that holds the most rigid and illiberal religious beliefs.
▪ It is to say that courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny.
▪ Boundaries are most rigid, their outline obvious and often oppressive.
so
▪ Isabel lay very still, her muscles so rigid with tension that she doubted she could have moved anyway.
▪ Some corporate cultures are so rigid that they require absolute obedience to the corporate line.
▪ If only conventions were not so rigid she could easily have had him for a lodger.
▪ This tale unfolds according to a formula so rigid, just about anyone could tell it.
▪ Hopefully they will not be so rigid with their resources.
▪ She was so rigid that each joint had to be broken loose.
too
▪ Misconceptions can penalise too rigid definition of hinterlands.
▪ Their categories are too all-encompassing, too rigid.
▪ Too theoretical, too rigid, too whatever-negative-description-you-can-come-up-with.
▪ But today these things are too rigid.
▪ I would not, however, make the separation too rigid.
▪ It is too rigid and bureaucratic.
▪ She has never hired anyone with a business-school education, because she believes such people are too rigid in their outlook.
▪ The line is too rigid, too divisive.
very
▪ Can I now replace or modify the very rigid eleven leaf springs on the front?
▪ Sometimes children who are very rigid also have difficulty using emotional ideas.
▪ After 18 months the law provides very rigid conditions for software registration and it will mean that every copy should be authorised.
▪ The inheritance of outmoded company structures from the past, reinforced by further concentration, produced very rigid company organisation.
▪ The very rigid structure looks tedious and clumsy to us humans, but we are not meant to be reading it.
▪ This is a stout, low-growing plant with very rigid and distinctive leaves.
■ NOUN
adherence
▪ During preoperational development, children become aware of rules and demand of others a rigid adherence to rules.
body
▪ We shall see later that in simple shear a rigid body rotation is involved as well as a displacement.
▪ And the Skyship is a pressure airship, whereas the old airships had rigid bodies.
▪ With rigid body, I waited for the shots, but none came.
control
▪ Propping up the world's most enduring dictator is a slavish personality cult, and rigid control of the nation.
▪ Gore has also maintained rigid control over the use of its products.
▪ Nicholson brought instant stability to the production and introduced some of the rigid controls he had learned from the Corman modusoperandi.
hierarchy
▪ Many communities of small cetaceans have rigid hierarchies of power.
▪ We needed flexibility, but kept rigid hierarchies.
▪ Its supporters make the point that it breaks down rigid hierarchies and allows for greater participation in the decision-making process.
▪ In Workplace 2000, rigid hierarchies will be dismantled, as will the ceremonial trappings of power.
rule
▪ The ephemeral nature of fluid flow belies the rigid rules which govern its behaviour.
▪ Such rigid rules almost inevitably set up a nightly struggle that exhausts everyone.
▪ The rigid rules for turn and turn about social calls are no longer observed.
▪ This means organizations must continue to set norms and create a corporate culture but not lay down rigid rules.
▪ Byrne designs the cars and has made the most of the rigid rules that now govern Grand Prix racing.
▪ There are very many such influences on grouping structure, so that rigid rules would be almost impossible to specify.
▪ They can prefer the certainty and security offered by rigid rules.
structure
▪ In the islands almost all white men were part of a rigid structure that turned them into guards and gaolers.
▪ A honeycomb provides the most rigid structure with lightest weight.
▪ In spite of their rigid structure they can move through the water with surprising speed.
▪ It means less rigid structures in planning.
▪ Flexibility is essential; rigid structures do not survive major turbulence.
▪ The very rigid structure looks tedious and clumsy to us humans, but we are not meant to be reading it.
▪ Instead of a rigid structure, gender becomes an open house for men and women to enter and leave.
system
▪ Secondly, as mentioned before, Hindu society is patrilineal and it follows a rigid system of caste distinction.
▪ It was broken, and we should be wary of returning to such a rigid system.
▪ They can become a rigid system for controlling students and teachers, but they need not be used in this way.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ rigid academic standards
▪ About a dozen large rigid plates make up the Earth's crust.
▪ Andrew was even more rigid in his attitudes towards child-rearing than his father, who was himself quite strict.
▪ Any major changes were prevented by the rigid conservatism of the Church.
▪ He built the team through hard training and rigid discipline.
▪ It is not possible to lay down rigid rules on sentencing - judges must be free to use their discretion.
▪ Our manager was so rigid, he'd never listen to our ideas.
▪ People naturally get very frustrated with rigid bureaucracies.
▪ Spoon the ice-cream into a rigid plastic container and freeze.
▪ The rigid class distinctions which characterised British society are beginning to break down.
▪ The framework of the aircraft must be rigid yet light.
▪ The French maintain a rigid separation of personal and professional life.
▪ The government had centralized political power and imposed rigid controls on economic activity.
▪ The key to success is flexibility. If you're too rigid, you could be in trouble.
▪ The President will not be able to meet enough people if he is kept to an unnaturally rigid schedule.
▪ The tent is made of strong canvas attached to a rigid frame.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A rigid cabinet is essential for eliminating unwanted resonances, and the unusual glass-reinforced-plastic enclosure is perfect.
▪ A honeycomb provides the most rigid structure with lightest weight.
▪ But at the level of field studies there was a much less rigid distinction between professional and amateur.
▪ They can not all be fitted into the same rigid framework.
▪ Without this adjustability, the neural circuitry would be as rigid as that in our consumer electronics.
▪ Yet it would be dangerous to regard such divisions as being in any way rigid.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rigid

Rigid \Rig"id\, a. [L. rigidus, fr. rigere to be stiff or numb: cf. F. rigide. Cf. Rigor. ]

  1. Firm; stiff; unyielding; not pliant; not flexible.

    Upright beams innumerable Of rigid spears.
    --Milton.

  2. Hence, not lax or indulgent; severe; inflexible; strict; as, a rigid father or master; rigid discipline; rigid criticism; a rigid sentence.

    The more rigid order of principles in religion and government.
    --Hawthorne.

    Syn: Stiff; unpliant; inflexible; unyielding; strict; exact; severe; austere; stern; rigorous; unmitigated.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rigid

early 15c., from Latin rigidus "hard, stiff, rough, severe," from rigere "be stiff," from PIE *reig- "stretch (tight), bind tightly, make fast" (cognates: Old Irish riag "torture," Middle High German ric "band, string"). Related: Rigidly.

Wiktionary
rigid

a. 1 stiff, rather than flexible. 2 fixed, rather than moving. 3 rigorous and unbending. 4 uncompromising.

Related phrases:
WordNet
rigid

  1. adj. incapable of or resistant to bending; "a rigid strip of metal"; "a table made of rigid plastic"; "a palace guardsman stiff as a poker" [syn: stiff]

  2. incapable of compromise or flexibility [syn: strict]

  3. incapable of adapting or changing to meet circumstances; "a rigid disciplinarian"; "an inflexible law"; "an unbending will to dominate" [syn: inflexible, unbending]

  4. fixed and unmoving; "with eyes set in a fixed glassy stare"; "his bearded face already has a set hollow look"- Connor Cruise O'Brien; "a face rigid with pain" [syn: fixed, set]

  5. designating an airship or dirigible having a form maintained by a stiff unyielding frame or structure [ant: nonrigid]

Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "rigid".

He resisted the easy allure of self-pity and stood rigid, almost at attention, until the feeling had passed.

Much was said in maxims and apophthegms of the purity and necessity of rigid impartiality in administering the affairs of life, but neither had attained his years and experience without obtaining glimpses of practical things, that taught them to foresee the impunity of Maso.

A trifle pale, but that may have been the effect of her black clothing, rigid from the waist up, her shoes turned outward as befits a ballet dancer, she carried her school satchel -- which was brown, of artificial leather -- to school and her leek-green, dawn-red, and air-blue gym bags, dyed black, to Oliva or to the theater, and returned punctually and pigeon-toed, more well behaved than rebellious, to Elsenstrasse.

Their bared swords were leveled in rigid hands, their faces torn by a volatile mix of worry and vindication.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, Brayen leaned in to her, his rigid cock pressed against her soaked entrance.

This school associates hydropathy with its practice, and usually inculcates rigid dietetic and hygienic regulations.

Hither the manslayer, the man who had broken a tabu, or failed in the observance of its rigid requirements, the thief, and even the murderer, fled from his incensed pursuers, and was secure.

Without conscious will, he became erect deep between her lips as she raised and lowered her head over him, making him as rigid as a marlinspike, as tumescent as a belaying pin.

Martensite is very rigid, so martensitic steel is very hard, but stiff.

Spock, Kirk, Maslin and Uhura, gasped and became rigid at their places.

The branches and limbs of coral seemed rigid only because each microform who darted away left chemical energy behind which only microforms who took up that exact position in the hierarchy, the same place and stance and posture, could fully enjoy.

Any one of those, possibly a mixture of all, the color I can see beyond the clouded glass, carefully, geometrically divided into nine oblongs by those rigid black muntins, while I lie here on my bed, staring out at that one small piece of sky visible to me.

This vast formation, so precise and rigid, yet so quick and fluid to change course or rearrange itself, a seagoing miracle surely beyond the dreams of Nelson himself, was maintained with careless ease by hundreds of officers of the deck, not one in ten of whom was a professional seaman: college boys, salesmen, schoolteachers, lawyers, clerks, writers, druggists, engineers, farmers, piano players-these were the young men who outperformed the veteran officers of the fleets of Nelson.

Equality of men and women in the noosphereequal access to the public domain of the noosphere and equal rights in that domaindoes not mean that a rigid 50-50 parity must be maintained in all areas.

Only Parrail could see the utter concentration holding the mage rigid.