Definition

1. Noun:
   • Muscular stiffening after death: A physiological condition characterized by the stiffening of the body's muscles, typically beginning 2 to 4 hours after death and lasting for about 4 days.
   • Temporary post-mortem rigidity: The temporary stiffness of joints and muscular rigidity that occurs as a chemical process in the muscles ceases after death.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The presence of rigor mortis helped the coroner estimate the time of death.
  • Rigor mortis had set in, making it difficult to move the limbs.

Advanced Usage

• "to set in": This phrase is commonly used with 'rigor mortis' to describe the process beginning.
  • Rigor mortis usually sets in a few hours after death.

Variants and Related Words

• Rigidity (n): The state of being stiff and inflexible. (While a general synonym, it is not specific to the post-mortem context like 'rigor mortis').
• Livor mortis (n): Another post-mortem change involving the settling of blood, often discussed alongside rigor mortis in forensic science.
• Algor mortis (n): The post-mortem change in body temperature, also studied in conjunction with rigor mortis.

Synonyms

• Post-mortem rigidity: A more technical synonym.
• Death stiffening: A descriptive, non-technical synonym.

Related Phrases

• "Passing of rigor mortis": Refers to the point when the stiffness subsides.
  • After the passing of rigor mortis, the body becomes flexible again.

Related Idioms

• (Figurative) Like rigor mortis: Used informally to describe extreme stiffness or inflexibility in a non-literal context.
  • After sitting through the eight-hour meeting, my back was like rigor mortis.

Noun

1. muscular stiffening that begins 2 to 4 hours after death and lasts for about 4 days
2. temporary stiffness of joints and muscular rigidity occurring after death