RIGOROUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rigorous mean? 

• RIGOROUS (adjective)
  The adjective RIGOROUS has 2 senses:

1. rigidly accurate; allowing no deviation from a standard

2. demanding strict attention to rules and procedures

  Familiarity information: RIGOROUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIGOROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rigidly accurate; allowing no deviation from a standard

Synonyms:

rigorous; strict

Context example:

a strict vegetarian

Similar:

exact (marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact)

Derivation:

rigor (the quality of being valid and rigorous)

rigorousness (excessive sternness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Demanding strict attention to rules and procedures

Synonyms:

rigorous; stringent; tight

Context example:

stringent safety measures

Similar:

demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)

Derivation:

rigor; rigorousness (excessive sternness)

 Context examples 

According to Gopalan, more rigorous tests are being planned.

(Mango leaf extract can stop ships from rusting, SciDev.Net)

Does not meet the rigorous criteria of a clinical trial.

(Clinical Testing, NCI Thesaurus)

Even if further studies continue to yield promising results, any potential treatment derived from ZIKV would need many years of rigorous testing for safety and efficacy.

(Zika virus selectively infects and kills glioblastoma cells in mice, National Institutes of Health)

Only 10 to 20 percent of recognized human genes have been subjected to such rigorous testing.

(A new role for zebrafish: larger scale gene function studies, NIH)

This rigorous research supported the conclusions of its predecessor, who appeared to have a poorer working memory for participants with higher BMI.

(Obesity Can Affect Kids’ Working Memory, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

As he went out into the rigorous night, I saw the lonely figure flit away before us.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As the fall of the year came on, the moose appeared in greater abundance, moving slowly down to meet the winter in the lower and less rigorous valleys.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The night however, was far gone into the morning—the morning, black as it was, was nearly ripe for the conception of the day—the inmates of my house were locked in the most rigorous hours of slumber; and I determined, flushed as I was with hope and triumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She was agreed that the most rigorous treatment was necessary if we were to escape, though she recoiled at the suggestion that I might some time be compelled to take his life to save my own—our own, she put it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A negotiation was opened through the medium of the ambassador, Sam; and after much pacing to and fro, till, I think, the said Sam's calves must have ached with the exercise, permission was at last, with great difficulty, extorted from the rigorous Sibyl, for the three to wait upon her in a body.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)