rigidifiern.
/rɪˈdʒɪdᵻfʌɪə/, U.S. /rɪˈdʒɪdəˌfaɪər/ A person who or thing which makes something rigid; (Philosophy) a modifying word or expression used to establish a description, predicate, etc., as rigid (rigid adj. 4).
ΚΠ
1960 U.S. Patent 2,937,394 5 One end portion of said brace providing a grip, the other end portion functioning as a slat rigidifier.
1968 Listener 21 Mar. 365/2 In literature, some artists are naturally rigidifiers and others naturally moulders.
1988 Mind 97 356 The proposal is that we construe the adverb ‘actually’, or the adjective ‘actual’, as a ‘rigidifier’, an expression whose role is to refer us back to the way things are in the actual world.
2004 New Phytologist 163 24/2 The membrane rigidifier dimethylsulfoxide.
2005 F. Kroon in M. E. Kalderon Fictionalism in Metaphysics vi. 192 The inclusion of the rigidifier ‘actual’ ensures that the descriptive representation is treated as rigid.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1960