different between starched vs rigorous

English

Verb

starched

1. simple past tense and past participle of starch

Adjective

starched (comparative more starched, superlative most starched)

1. Of a garment: having had starch applied.
2. Stiff, formal, rigid; prim and proper.
   • 1712, Jonathan Swift, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, Dublin: George Faulkner, 1751, Volume 1, pp. 102-103,^[1]

     Does the Gospel any where prescribe a starched squeezed Countenance, a stiff formal Gait, a Singularity of Manners and Habit, or any affected Modes of Speech, different from the reasonable Part of Mankind?

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 5, Section 3, pp. 217-218,^[2]

     A cultivated understanding, and an affectionate heart, will never want starched rules of decorum—something more substantial than seemliness will be the result; and, without understanding the behaviour here recommended, would be rank affectation.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume 2, Chapter 8,^[3]

     I was not a little startled at recognising in his companions that very Morris on whose account I had been summoned before Justice Inglewood, and Mr. MacVittie the merchant, from whose starched and severe aspect I had recoiled on the preceding day.

   • 1961, Bernard Malamud, A New Life, Penguin, 1968, p. 107,^[4]

     ‘ […] CD is a fair-enough scholar but starched like my grand-daddy’s collar.’

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:starched.

Anagrams

• cartshed, destarch, herd cats

English

Alternative forms

• rigourous (non?standard)

Etymology

From Old French, from Late Latin rigorosus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???????s/
• Rhymes: -?????s

Adjective

rigorous (comparative more rigorous, superlative most rigorous)

1. Showing, causing, or favoring rigour; scrupulously accurate or strict; thorough.

   a rigorous officer of justice

   a rigorous execution of law

   a rigorous inspection
2. Severe; intense.

   a rigorous winter.

Synonyms

• (showing, causing or favoring rigor): painstaking, scrupulous; see also Thesaurus:meticulous
• (severe; intense): harsh, strict; see also Thesaurus:stern

Antonyms

• (severe; intense): arbitrary, capricious, whimsical

Derived terms

• nonrigorous
• overrigorous
• rigorously
• rigorousness
• unrigorous

Related terms

• rigid
• rigour

Translations

Further reading

• rigorous at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rigorous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.