Word Meanings - SEVERE - Book Publishers vocabulary database

perhaps akin to Gr. swikns innocent, chaste: cf. F. sévère. Cf. 1. Serious in feeeling or manner; sedate; grave; austere; not light, lively, or cheerful. Your looks alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe. Waller.

Additional info about word: SEVERE

perhaps akin to Gr. swikns innocent, chaste: cf. F. sévère. Cf. 1. Serious in feeeling or manner; sedate; grave; austere; not light, lively, or cheerful. Your looks alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe. Waller. 2. Very strict in judgment, discipline, or government; harsh; not mild or indulgent; rigorous; as, severe criticism; severe punishment. "Custody severe." Milton. Come! you are too severe a moraler. Shak. Let your zeal, if it must be expressed in anger, be always more severe against thyself than against others. Jer. Taylor. 3. Rigidly methodical, or adherent to rule or principle; exactly conformed to a standard; not allowing or employing unneccessary ornament, amplification, etc.; strict; -- said of style, argument, etc. "Restrained by reason and severe principles." Jer. Taylor. The Latin, a most severe and compendious language. Dryden. 4. Sharp; afflictive; distressing; violent; extreme; as, severe pain, anguish, fortune; severe cold. 5. Difficult to be endured; exact; critical; rigorous; as, a severe test. Syn. -- Strict; grave; austere; stern; morose; rigid; exact; rigorous; hard; rough; harsh; censorious; tart; acrimonious; sarcastic; satirical; cutting; biting; keen; bitter; cruel. See Strict. -- Se*vere"ly, adv. -- Se*vere"ness, n.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of SEVERE)

• Acute
• Pointed
• penetrating
• sagacious
• perspicacious
• keen
• astute
• piercing
• sharp
• shrewd
• keen-sighted
• severe
• distressing
• Austere
• Hard
• rigid
• stern
• morose
• unrelenting
• unyielding
• strict
• rigorous
• harsh
• sour
• relentless
• Bitter
• Harsh
• tart
• acrimonious
• sarcastic
• sad
• afflictive
• intense
• stinging
• pungent
• acrid
• cutting
• Caustic
• Burning
• mordant
• irritating
• biting
• pointed
• trenchant
• Crucial
• Searching
• probing
• discriminating
• critical

Related words: (words related to SEVERE)

• BITE
  bizan, G. beissen, Goth. beitan, Icel. bita, Sw. bita, Dan. bide, L. 1. To seize with the teeth, so that they enter or nip the thing seized; to lacerate, crush, or wound with the teeth; as, to bite an apple; to bite a crust; the dog bit a man.
• STERNFOREMOST
  With the stern, instead of the bow, in advance; hence, figuratively, in an awkward, blundering manner. A fatal genius for going sternforemost. Lowell.
• STERNUTATORY
  Sternutative. -- n.
• BITTERWEED
  A species of Ambrosia ; Roman worm wood. Gray.
• STINGBULL
  The European greater weever fish , which is capable of inflicting severe wounds with the spinous rays of its dorsal fin. See Weever.
• STING RAY; STINGRAY
  Any one of numerous rays of the family Dasyatidæ, syn. Trygonidæ, having one or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines, on the whiplike tail, capable of inflicting severe wounds. Some species reach a large size, and some, esp., on the American
• SHARPLY
  In a sharp manner,; keenly; acutely. They are more sharply to be chastised and reformed than the rude Irish. Spenser. The soldiers were sharply assailed with wants. Hayward. You contract your eye when you would see sharply. Bacon.
• PROBACY
  Proof; trial. Chaucer.
• PROBATION
  1. The act of proving; also, that which proves anything; proof. When by miracle God dispensed great gifts to the laity, . . . he gave probation that he intended that all should prophesy and preach. Jer. Taylor. 2. Any proceeding designed
• BITUME
  Bitumen. May.
• BURN
  To apply a cautery to; to cauterize. (more info) birnen, v.i., AS. bærnan, bernan, v.t., birnan, v.i.; akin to OS. brinnan, OFries. barna, berna, OHG. brinnan, brennan, G. brennen, OD. bernen, D. branden, Dan. brænde, Sw. bränna, brinna, Icel.
• STRICT
  Upright, or straight and narrow; -- said of the shape of the plants or their flower clusters. Syn. -- Exact; accurate; nice; close; rigorous; severe. -- Strict, Severe. Strict, applied to a person, denotes that he conforms in his motives and acts
• ACRIDLY
  In an acid manner.
• STERNOHYOID
  Of or pertaining to the sternum and the hyoid bone or cartilage.
• SHARPER
  A person who bargains closely, especially, one who cheats in bargains; a swinder; also, a cheating gamester. Sharpers, as pikes, prey upon their own kind. L'Estrange. Syn. -- Swindler; cheat; deceiver; trickster; rogue. See Swindler.
• BITTERS
  A liquor, generally spirituous in which a bitter herb, leaf, or root is steeped.
• CUTTHROAT
  One who cuts throats; a murderer; an assassin.
• STERNAL
  Of or pertaining to the sternum; in the region of the sternum. Sternal ribs. See the Note under Rib, n., 1.
• PROBOSCIS
  A hollow organ or tube attached to the head, or connected with the mouth, of various animals, and generally used in taking food or drink; a snout; a trunk. Note: The proboscis of an elephant is a flexible muscular elongation of the nose.
• PROBOSCIDIFERA
  An extensive division of pectinibranchiate gastropods, including those that have a long retractile proboscis, with the mouth at the end, as the cones, whelks, tritons, and cowries. See Illust. of Gastropoda, and of Winkle.
• OVERBURN
  To burn too much; to be overzealous.
• OPPROBRIOUS
  1. Expressive of opprobrium; attaching disgrace; reproachful; scurrilous; as, opprobrious language. They . . . vindicate themselves in terms no less opprobrious than those by which they are attacked. Addison. 2. Infamous; despised; rendered
• HOBIT
  A small mortar on a gun carriage, in use before the howitzer.
• CONTRADISTINGUISH
  To distinguish by a contrast of opposite qualities. These are our complex ideas of soul and body, as contradistinguished. Locke.
• REHIBITION
  The returning of a thing purchased to the seller, on the ground of defect or frand.
• WASTING
  Causing waste; also, undergoing waste; diminishing; as, a wasting disease; a wasting fortune. Wasting palsy , progressive muscular atrophy. See under Progressive.
• HYPERCRITICALLY
  In a hypercritical manner.
• INHABITATE
  To inhabit.
• INHIBITORY
  Of or pertaining to, or producing, inhibition; consisting in inhibition; tending or serving to inhibit; as, the inhibitory action of the pneumogastric on the respiratory center. I would not have you consider these criticisms as inhibitory. Lamb.
• DISINTERESTING
  Uninteresting. "Disinteresting passages." Bp. Warburton.
• SUNBURNING
  Sunburn; tan. Boyle.
• BUNSEN'S BATTERY; BUNSEN'S BURNER
  See BURNER
• INDISTINGUISHABLE
  Not distinguishable; not capable of being perceived, known, or discriminated as separate and distinct; hence, not capable of being perceived or known; as, in the distance the flagship was indisguishable; the two copies were indisguishable in form
• ARBITRESS
  A female arbiter; an arbitratrix. Milton.
• TRILOBITE
  Any one of numerous species of extinct arthropods belonging to the order Trilobita. Trilobites were very common in the Silurian and Devonian periods, but became extinct at the close of the Paleozoic. So named from the three lobes usually seen on
• PERSISTING
  Inclined to persist; tenacious of purpose; persistent. -- Per*sist"ing*ly, adv.
• DISCUBITORY
  Leaning; fitted for a reclining posture. Sir T. Browne.