From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Severity \Se*ver"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Severities}. [L. severitas: cf.
F. s['e]v['e]rit['e].]
The quality or state of being severe. Specifically:
[1913 Webster]
(a) Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor;
harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof;
severity of discipline or government; severity of
penalties. "Strict age, and sour severity." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
(b) 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.
[1913 Webster]
(c) Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as,
severity practiced on prisoners of war.
[1913 Webster]
(d) Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of
a test.
[1913 Webster]
Confining myself to the severity of truth.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
severity
n 1: used of the degree of something undesirable e.g. pain or
weather [syn: {badness}, {severity}, {severeness}]
2: something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters"
[syn: {asperity}, {grimness}, {hardship}, {rigor}, {rigour},
{severity}, {severeness}, {rigorousness}, {rigourousness}]
3: extreme plainness [syn: {austereness}, {severity},
{severeness}]
4: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
[syn: {severity}, {severeness}, {harshness}, {rigor},
{rigour}, {rigorousness}, {rigourousness}, {inclemency},
{hardness}, {stiffness}]
|
