adjective
definition
Very bad or intense.
definition
Strict or harsh.
example
a severe taskmaster
definition
Sober, plain in appearance, austere.
example
a severe old maiden aunt
Examples of severe in a Sentence
On such matters I am only severe with myself.
A small, older woman in severe grey opened the door.
In 1887 a severe banking crisis occurred in Sardinia.
I have heard of such cases and know that His Majesty is very severe in such affairs.
As we transition from one set of economic realities to another, there will be severe disruptions along the way.
It is unusually hard, owing to the recent severe but transient cold, and all watered or waved like a palace floor.
But this advantage involves a corresponding disadvantage, the danger of unduly severe mental application.
I was never cast away nor distressed in any weather, though I encountered some severe storms.
In 1794 Mannheim fell into the hands of the French, and in the following year it was retaken by the Austrians after a severe bombardment, which left scarcely a single building uninjured.
Avicenna himself was at this season stricken down by a severe illness.
After a severe struggle the Persians were defeated by the emperor Heraclius, who entered Jerusalem in triumph in 62 9 bringing with him the holy cross, which had been carried off by Chosroes.
In many gardens open-air tanks have been fitted up with hot-water pipes running through them to keep the water sufficiently warm in severe weather.
It was not, however, till 1682 that they again lost the privilege of public ministry, and suffered severe oppression.
The serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to the claims of common humanity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the despised and persecuted Jews.
Proposing to seek his fortune abroad, he went on foot to Nantes, but was there prostrated by an illness so severe that all thoughts of emigration were perforce abandoned.
The climate is rather severe.
Landon's response was chipper despite his severe features.
I never knew it to open in the course of a winter, not excepting that of '52-3, which gave the ponds so severe a trial.
His face and neck suffered severe burns while his right side looked as though a Brillo brush had been taken to it.
Natasha was calm, though a severe and grave expression had again settled on her face.
Dusty glanced at his long-time Miami Station Chief, the handsome Hispanic man who looked as severe as he was lighthearted.
She recalled his long sad and severe look at those words and understood the meaning of the rebuke and despair in that protracted gaze.
The climate of these islands is very severe.
At his severe tone, she took another step back, ready to exit as fast as she could in the snug dress and high heels.
Peter Bayle is severe on certain historical inaccuracies of Davila, and it is true that Davila must be read with due remembrance of the fact that he was not only a Catholic but the especial protege of Catherine de' Medici, but it is not to be forgotten that Bayle was as strongly Protestant.
The severe west front is relieved by three rows of semicircular arches, and has a central porch (there were at one time three) supported by huge red marble lions, sculptured no doubt with the rest of the façade by Giovanni Bono da Bissone in 1281.
Towards the end of the century, Charlemagne, himself a Netherlander by descent and ancestral possessions, after a severe struggle, thoroughly subdued the Frisians and Saxons, and compelled them to embrace Christianity.
Bordeaux, the French envoy in England, wrote that, in spite of the severe laws, the Romanists received better treatment under the Protectorate than under any other government.
It seems, however, that, while she was still suffering from severe pain, she noticed the movements of her mother's lips.
In toxic doses podophyllin causes intense enteritis, with all its characteristic symptoms, and severe depression, which may end in death.
A severe storm effected, however, a complete disaster without any actual engagement taking place.
Earthquakes are not uncommon and sometimes severe.
As a literary critic Pollio was very severe.
No serious operations were attempted far inland; and though severe fighting took place effective Italian occupation never extended far from the sea.
The course of the battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks bore some resemblance to that of Shiloh; a sharp attack found the Unionists unprepared, and only after severe losses and many partial defeats could McClellan check the rebel advance.
He had many struggles to pass through in early life, which tended to discipline his character and to form the habits of severe study and the mental independence for which he came to be distinguished.
Taken by the mouth, the drug is apt to cause considerable digestive disturbance, varying in different cases and sometimes so severe as to cause serious difficulty.
The oppression of Antiochus led to a revolt of the Jews under the leadership of the Maccabees, and Judas Maccabaeus succeeded in capturing Jerusalem after severe fighting, but could not get The sites shown on the plan are tentative, and cannot be regarded as certain; see Nehemiah ii.
On the whole the history of the colony has been one of peaceful progress, interrupted now and again, as in 1903, by severe droughts.
Throughout the region north of the Apennines no plants will thrive which cannot stand occasional severe frosts in winter, so that not only oranges and lemons but even the olive tree cannot be grown, except in specially favoured situations.
Taxation was somewhat reduced, the censorship was made less severe, political amnesties were granted, humaner officials were appointed and the Congregations (a sort of shadowy consultative assembly) were revived.
At the same time the cabinet, as a whole, brought in a Clerical Abuses Bill, threatening with severe punishment priests guilty of disturbing the peace of families, of opposing the laws of the state, or of fomenting disorder.
Crispis methods aroused great outcry in the Radical press, but the severe sentences of the military courts were in time tempered by the Royal prerogative of amnesty.
As in 1894, excessively severe sentences were passed by the military tribunals upon revolutionary leaders and other persons considered to have been implicated in the outbreak, but successive royal amnesties obliterated these condemnations within three years.
He received his early education, according to Morice his secretary, from " a marvellous severe and cruel schoolmaster," whose discipline must have been severe indeed to deserve this special mention in an age when no schoolmaster bore the rod in vain.
In August 1529 the plague known as the sweating sickness, which prevailed throughout the country, was specially severe at Cambridge, and all who had it in their power forsook the town for the country.
Paetus, a weak and incapable man, suffered a severe defeat at Rhandea (62), where he was surrounded and forced to capitulate and to evacuate Armenia.
Odo was also obliged to fight the Saracens who invaded the southern part of his kingdom, and inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Toulouse in 721.
The registry of the citizens, the suppression of litigation, the elevation of public morals, the care of minors, the retrenchment of public expenses, the limitation of gladiatorial games and shows, the care of roads, the restoration of senatorial privileges, the appointment of none but worthy magistrates, even the regulation of street traffic, these and numberless other duties so completely absorbed his attention that, in spite of indifferent health, they often kept him at severe labour from early morning till long after midnight.
In the time of Irenaeus the fast before Easter was very short, but very severe; thus some ate nothing for forty hours between the afternoon of Good Friday and the morning of Easter.