stiffness

n 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: the inelegance of someone stiff and unrelaxed (as by

embarrassment) [syn: {awkwardness}, {clumsiness}, {gracelessness}]

4: excessive sternness; "the severity of his punishment was

inhuman" [syn: {severity}, {harshness}, {inclemency}, {hardness}]