stiffen

“People get scared of the sway, the wobble. If you’ve had a fall before, you get a fear of falling again and you stiffen up, you become protective,” Swanson says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

"He'd started to stiffen because he had been there for so long, dead, with no-one noticing. It's horrific to think someone's loved one died with no one near them."

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026

This approach enabled us to create a material that can bend, buckle, or stiffen differently under slow movements versus sudden impacts -- without electronics, sensors, or active control.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026

“It probably would stiffen their spine,” said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst who wrote a biography of Castro and his older brother Fidel Castro.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026

I felt my mother’s hand stiffen on my shoulder.

From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan

The illness causes breathing difficulties and creates scar tissue that stiffens the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and for oxygen to enter the bloodstream.

From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026

The biggest reason is that our maximum heart rate slows with age, and the heart muscle stiffens, reducing its pumping effectiveness.

From Barron's ● May 23, 2026

When the cell enters the next interphase and the asters reform, the cytoplasm stiffens again and stabilizes the band.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026

Last year, Alibaba announced a plan to fold food-delivery and online-travel services into its e-commerce unit as competition stiffens in the Chinese market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026

The mention of the Scholar girl is so incongruous to my thoughts that for a second I’m stunned silent, and Helene stiffens.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

When the heart must work harder because of exercise, heat, stress or another cause, stiffened blood vessels may be less able to accommodate the increased blood flow.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026

They reckon it may have stiffened the resolve of the German public and discouraged rebels within the dying Nazi regime.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 12, 2026

Europe’s spine stiffened in part because 2025 exceeded expectations economically, says Jeremie Peloso, chief European strategist at BCA Research.

From Barron's ● Mar. 7, 2026

Marinello said that could change if countries stiffened the penalties for stealing cultural heritage by calling it cultural terrorism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025

By that time my legs had stiffened so I could hardly walk.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

Softening rather than stiffening when moving through space requires embracing your body’s natural sway and tiny micro-movements, like an ankle wobbling or knee jiggling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

It’s hard to imagine a greater accomplishment than to achieve peace while stiffening the sinews of deterrence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026

No wonder OpenAI’s Sam Altman issued a “code red” alert to employees urging them to step up the pace of chatbot development in the face of stiffening competition from the likes of Google’s Gemini.

From Barron's ● Dec. 3, 2025

Further analysis showed that the discs from diabetic rats exhibited a stiffening of collagen fibrils, with a higher concentration of non-enzymatic cross-links.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 13, 2024

His burned hand was stiffening up on him, and soon it began to ache.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin