stiffened

Verb

stiffen (third-person singular simple present stiffens, present participle stiffening, simple past and past participle stiffened)

1. (transitive) To make stiff.
   • As Willis spoke and tried to smile the voices inside him rang together like a bell, stiffening him and hollowing him and emptying him of his troubled song.1986, Melvin Dixon, “The Boy with Beer”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 33
2. (intransitive) To become stiff.
   • Bewildered by the unexpected greeting, my son stiffened, but managed a polite answer.2003, Yoko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor