Stiffen
verb (used with object)
1.
to make stiff.
verb (used without object)
2.
to become stiff.
3.
to become suddenly tense, rigid, or taut, as in bracing oneself for or drawing back from shock, fear, or displeasure:
He stiffened, expecting to hear the worst.
verb
1.
to make or become stiff or stiffer
2.
(intransitive) to become suddenly tense or unyielding
Read Also:
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noun, Zoology. 1. a nematocyst.
- Stinging-hair
noun, Botany. 1. sting (def 18). stinging hair noun 1. a multicellular hair in plants, such as the stinging nettle, that injects an irritant fluid when in contact with an animal
- Stinging-nettle
noun 1. a bristly, stinging Eurasian nettle, Urtica dioica, naturalized in North America, having forked clusters of greenish flowers, the young foliage sometimes cooked and eaten like spinach by the Scots. stinging nettle noun 1. See nettle (sense 1)
- Stinging tree
noun 1. any of various Australian trees and shrubs of the genus Dendrocnide with rigid stinging hairs
- Stingless-bee
noun 1. any of certain social, honey-producing tropical bees of the family Apidae, as of the genus Melipona, having a nonfunctional stinger.