Severity
[sɪ'verɪtɪ] or [sə'vɛrəti]
Definition
(noun.) excessive sternness; 'severity of character'; 'the harshness of his punishment was inhuman'; 'the rigors of boot camp'.
Checked by Brett--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of being severe.
(n.) Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor; harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof; severity of discipline or government; severity of penalties.
(n.) The quality or power of distressing or paining; extreme degree; extremity; intensity; inclemency; as, the severity of pain or anguish; the severity of cold or heat; the severity of the winter.
(n.) Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as, severity practiced on prisoners of war.
(n.) Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of a test.
Edited by Davy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Sternness, harshness, rigor, austerity, acrimony.[2]. Strictness, exactness, accuracy.[3]. Simplicity, plainness, conciseness.[4]. Sharpness, keenness, causticity.[5]. Extremity, afflictiveness, violence.
Editor: Rhoda
Examples
- The pines are not tall or luxuriant, but they are sombre, and add an air of severity to the scene. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Anyone who has had the smallest experience of municipal politics knows that the corruption of the police is directly proportionate to the severity of the taboos it is asked to enforce. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Don't say that, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit, almost with severity, 'because that is very unkind to Mrs. Bounderby. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Frosts will soon set in, and in all probability with severity. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- It was a little too bad, Fred began to think, that he should be kept in the traces with more severity than if he had been a clergyman. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Mr. Casaubon had no second attack of equal severity with the first, and in a few days began to recover his usual condition. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Mr. Chillip was fluttered again, by the extreme severity of my aunt's manner; so he made her a little bow and gave her a little smile, to mollify her. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- But, as Gibbon points out, our information as to its severity is of very doubtful value. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The old housekeeper, with a gracious severity of deportment, waves her hand towards the great staircase. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- But you'll find, when you come to manage, that there's no getting along without severity,--they are so bad, so deceitful, so lazy. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I won't take one of the others,' said Bella, tying the knots of the bundle very tight, in the severity of her resolution. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- There was one advantage, and only one that I know of, in Mr. Creakle's severity. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- To break him in by severity would be a useless attempt; to win him by flattery would be an effort worse than useless. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- That season was now gone; and winter had set in with sudden and unusual severity. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- We who are good-natured and hate severity make up our minds to a good deal of inconvenience. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- It was a time of exhaustion and reaction after the severities of the Jacobite republic. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Checker: Marty