severe (sever)

[ Gr. Cf. serious, L. σέβεσθαι, honor, reverence. serius, prob. from the same root.] 1. Serious or earnest in feeling, manner, or appearance; without levity; sedate; grave; austere; not light, lively, or cheerful. IMG:content-0734.png:[blocks in formation] He is I was sorry not to meet a well-known character in the mountains, who has killed twenty-one men. called, in the language of the country, a severe man. Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 270. 3. Strictly regulated by rule or principle; exactly conforming to a standard; rigidly methodical; hence, in lit., art, etc., avoiding, or not exhibiting or permitting, unnece ary or florid ornament, amplification, or the like; restrained; not luxuriant; always keeping measure; pure in line and form; chaste in conception; subordinated to a high ideal: as, a severe style of writing; the severest style of Greek architecture; the severe school of German music. The near scene, In naked and severe simplicity, Made contrast with the universe. Shelley, Alastor. The habits of the household were simple and severe. Froude, Cæsar, vi. A small draped female figure, remarkable for the se vere architectonic composition of the drapery. C. T. Newton , Art and Archæol., p. 91. 4. Sharp; afflictive; distre ing; violent; extreme: as, severe pain, anguish, or torture; se vere cold; a severe winter. See how they have safely surviv'd The frowns of a sky so severe. Cowper, The Winter Nosegay. This action was one of the severest which occurred in these wars. Pre scott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 14. 5. Difficult to be endured; trying; critical; rigorous: as, a severe test; a severe examination. I find you have a Genius for the most solid and severest sort of Studies. Howell, Letters, ii. 40. Olympia and the other great agonistic festivals were, as it were, the universities where this elaborate training was tested by competitive examinations of the severest kind. C. T. Newton, Art and Archæol., p. 323. =Syn. 1 and 2. Harsh , Strict , etc. (see austere ), unrelenting.-3. Exact, accurate, unadorned, chaste. - 4. Cutting, keen, biting. severely (se-ver'li), adv. In a severe manner, in any sense of the word severe.