Definition of: severe

(si·vir′) adjective
1. Trying to one's powers or endurance; hard to bear.
2. Rigorous in the treatment of others; unsparing; harsh; merciless.
3. Conforming to rigid rules; marked by pure and simple excellence; accurate.
4. Serious and austere in disposition or manner; grave; sedate; austerely plain.
5. Causing sharp pain or anguish; extreme: a severe pain. [<MF sévère <L severus]
—se·vere′ly adverb Synonyms: austere, rigid, rigorous, stern, stiff, unrelenting. That is severe which is devoid of all softness, mildness, indulgence, or levity, or (in literature and art) devoid of unnecessary ornament, amplification, or embellishment of any kind; as, a severe style; as said of anything painful, severe signifies such as heavily taxes endurance or power to resist; as, a severe pain, fever, or winter. Rigid signifies primarily stiff, resisting any effort to change its shape, its will, or course of conduct. Rigorous is nearly akin to rigid, but is a stronger word, having reference to action or active qualities: a rigid rule may be rigorously enforced. Strict signifies bound or stretched tight, tense, strenuously exact. Stern unites harshness and authority with strictness or severity; stern, as said even of inanimate objects, suggests something authoritative or forbidding. Austere signifies severely simple or temperate, strict in self–restraint or discipline, and similarly unrelenting toward Others. See ARDUOUS, AUSTERE, BAD, DIFFICULT, HARD, IMPLACABLE, MOROSE, VIOLENT.