Search Result for "austere": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (3)

1. severely simple;
- Example: "a stark interior"
[syn: austere, severe, stark, stern]

2. of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect;
- Example: "an austere expression"
- Example: "a stern face"
[syn: austere, stern]

3. practicing great self-denial;
- Example: "Be systematically ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it"- William James
- Example: "a desert nomad's austere life"
- Example: "a spartan diet"
- Example: "a spartan existence"
[syn: ascetic, ascetical, austere, spartan]



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Austere \Aus*tere"\, [F. aust[`e]re, L. austerus, fr. Gr. ?, fr.
   ? to parch, dry. Cf. Sear.]
   1. Sour and astringent; rough to the state; having acerbity;
      as, an austere crab apple; austere wine.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Severe in modes of judging, or living, or acting; rigid;
      rigorous; stern; as, an austere man, look, life.
      [1913 Webster]

            From whom the austere Etrurian virtue rose.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Unadorned; unembellished; severely simple.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Harsh; sour; rough; rigid; stern; severe; rigorous;
        strict.
        [1913 Webster]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

austere
    adj 1: severely simple; "a stark interior" [syn: austere,
           severe, stark, stern]
    2: of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in
       aspect; "an austere expression"; "a stern face" [syn:
       austere, stern]
    3: practicing great self-denial; "Be systematically
       ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you
       would rather not do it"- William James; "a desert nomad's
       austere life"; "a spartan diet"; "a spartan existence" [syn:
       ascetic, ascetical, austere, spartan]