stiffen

• POS: Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: stiff=en

CIDE DICTIONARY

stiffen, v. t. [See Stiff.].

•  To make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch.  [1913 Webster]

  "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood."  [1913 Webster]
•  To inspissate; to make more thick or viscous; as, to stiffen paste.  [1913 Webster]
•  To make torpid; to benumb.  [1913 Webster]

stiffen, v. i. 

 To become stiff or stiffer, in any sense of the adjective.  [1913 Webster]
"Like bristles rose my stiffening hair."  [1913 Webster]
"The tender soil then stiffening by degrees."  [1913 Webster]
"Some souls we see,
Grow hard and stiffen with adversity."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

stiffen, v.tr. & intr. make or become stiff.

Derivative

stiffener n. stiffening n.

THESAURUS

stiffen

amplify, back, be tough, beef up, brace, brace up, buttress, case harden, charge, clot, coagulate, confirm, congeal, crystallize, electrify, endure, energize, fortify, galvanize, generate, gird, hang tough, harden, invigorate, jell, loop in, nerve, plug in, prop, refresh, reinforce, reinvigorate, restrengthen, rigidify, screw up, set, shock, shore up, short, short-circuit, solidify, steel, step down, step up, strengthen, support, sustain, switch off, switch on, tauten, temper, tense, thicken, tighten, toughen, trice up, turn off, turn on, undergird

ROGET THESAURUS

stiffen

Hardness

VB render hard, harden, stiffen, indurate, petrify, temper, ossify, vitrify, accrust.