The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Severe \Se*vere"\, a. [Compar. Severer; superl. Severest.]
[L. severus; perhaps akin to Gr. ??? awe, ??? revered, holy,
solemn, Goth. swikns innocent, chaste: cf. F. s['e]v[`e]re.
Cf. Asseverate, Persevere.]
1. Serious in feeling or manner; sedate; grave; austere; not
light, lively, or cheerful.
[1913 Webster]
Your looks alter, as your subject does,
From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe.
--Waller.
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2. Very strict in judgment, discipline, or government; harsh;
not mild or indulgent; rigorous; as, severe criticism;
severe punishment. "Custody severe." --Milton.
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Come! you are too severe a moraler. --Shak.
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Let your zeal, if it must be expressed in anger, be
always more severe against thyself than against
others. --Jer. Taylor.
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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.
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The Latin, a most severe and compendious language.
--Dryden.
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4. Sharp; afflictive; distressing; violent; extreme; as,
severe pain, anguish, fortune; severe cold.
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5. Difficult to be endured; exact; critical; rigorous; as, a
severe test.
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Syn: Strict; grave; austere; stern; morose; rigid; exact;
rigorous; hard; rough; harsh; censorious; tart;
acrimonious; sarcastic; satirical; cutting; biting;
keen; bitter; cruel. See Strict.
[1913 Webster] -- Se*vere"ly, adv. -- Se*vere"ness,
n.
[1913 Webster]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
384 Moby Thesaurus words for "severe":
Draconian, Herculean, Siberian, Spartan, Spartanic, abrupt,
absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, abstruse, acerbic, acid,
acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, acute, afflictive, aggressive,
agonizing, algid, aloof, arbitrary, arctic, arduous, aristocratic,
arrogant, ascetic, asperous, astringent, atrocious, austere,
authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, awful, badly, bald, bare,
basic, bearish, beastly, below zero, biting, bitter, bitterly cold,
bleak, blistering, bluff, blunt, blustering, blustery, boreal,
bossy, brash, brisk, brumal, brusque, brutal, burdensome, candid,
caustic, cavalier, chaste, churlish, close, cold, cold as charity,
cold as death, cold as ice, cold as marble, common, commonplace,
complex, constant, cramping, crimpy, crisp, critical, crude, cruel,
crusty, curt, cutting, dangerous, delicate, demanding, despotic,
dictatorial, difficile, difficult, dire, direct, disagreeable,
disciplined, distressing, domineering, double-edged, dour, drastic,
dreadful, dry, dull, edged, effortful, elementary, escharotic,
essential, even, exact, exacting, excessive, excruciating, exigent,
exorbitant, express, extravagant, extreme, faithful, fastidious,
fatal, feudal, fierce, fine, flinty, forbidding, formidable, frank,
freezing, freezing cold, frigid, fundamental, furious, gelid,
glacial, glowering, gnawing, grave, gravely, great, grievous, grim,
grinding, griping, gruff, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought,
hardly, harrowing, harsh, harshly, heavy, heavy-handed, hibernal,
hiemal, high-handed, homely, homespun, homogeneous, hostile,
hurtful, hurting, hyperborean, ice-cold, ice-encrusted, icelike,
icy, immoderate, imperative, imperial, imperious, incisive,
inclement, indivisible, inerrable, inerrant, inexorable,
infallible, inflexible, inhospitable, inhuman, inornate,
intemperate, intense, intensely, intricate, iron-willed,
irreducible, irritating, jawbreaking, keen, knotted, knotty,
laborious, lean, lordly, magisterial, magistral, markedly,
masterful, mathematical, matter-of-fact, mean, merciless, mere,
meticulous, micrometrically precise, microscopic, modest, monastic,
monocratic, monolithic, mordacious, mordant, mortal, mortified,
natural, neat, nice, nipping, nippy, no picnic, nose-tickling,
not easy, numbing, obdurate, of a piece, onerous, open, operose,
oppressive, outrageous, overbearing, overruling, painful,
painfully, painstaking, paroxysmal, penetrating, peremptory,
piercing, pinching, pinpoint, piquant, pitiless, plain,
plain-speaking, plain-spoken, poignant, precise, primal, primary,
primitive, prosaic, prosing, prosy, pungent, punishing, punitive,
pure, pure and simple, racking, raw, refined, relentless,
religious, religiously exact, repressive, restrictive, rigid,
rigorous, rigorously, rough, roughly, rugged, rustic, ruthless,
savage, scathing, scientific, scientifically exact,
self-disciplined, serious, set with thorns, severe, severely,
sharp, shooting, short, simon-pure, simple, simple-speaking,
single, sleety, slushy, smart, snappy, snippy, sober, sore, sour,
spare, sparse, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spiny, splitting,
square, stabbing, stark, steep, stern, stiff, stinging, stone-cold,
stony, stormy, straightforward, strait-laced, strenuous, strict,
strident, stringent, subtle, subzero, supercooled, suppressive,
surly, tart, taxing, terminal, thorny, ticklish, toilsome,
tormenting, torturous, tough, trenchant, tricky, truculent,
turbulent, tyrannical, tyrannous, unadorned, unaffected, unbending,
uncluttered, uncompromising, unconscionable, undecorated,
undeviating, undifferenced, undifferentiated, unelaborate,
unembellished, unerring, unfancy, unfeeling, unfussy, ungentle,
uniform, unimaginative, unornate, unpleasant, unpoetical,
unsmiling, unsparing, unsympathetic, unvarnished, unyielding,
uphill, vehement, venomous, violent, virulent, vitriolic, weighty,
wicked, winterbound, winterlike, wintery, wintry