WordWeb Online

1. The physical property of being inflexible and hard to bend
    
2. The property of moving with pain or difficulty
   "he awoke with a painful stiffness in his neck"
    
3. Firm resoluteness in purpose, opinion or action
   "a charming host without any touch of stiffness or pomposity"
    
4. The inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by embarrassment)
   - awkwardness, clumsiness, gracelessness
    
5. Excessive sternness
   "stiffness of character";
   - severity, severeness, harshness, rigor [US], rigour [Brit, Cdn], rigorousness, rigourousness [Brit, non-standard], inclemency, hardness

Type of: awkwardness, clumsiness, firmness, firmness of purpose, inelasticity, inelegance, resoluteness, resolution, resolve, sternness, strictness

Encyclopedia: Stiffness