severity
(sɪˈvɛrɪtɪ)
[a. F. sévérité, ad. L. sevēritās, f. sevērus: see severe a. and -ity. Cf. It. severità, Sp. severidad, Pg. severidade.]
1. Strictness or sternness in dealing with others; stern or rigorous disposition or behaviour; rigour in treatment, discipline, punishment, or the like.
| 1530 Wolsey in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 33 Your most excellent nature wych hath ever be moved and propensyd to clemency and mercy then to rygor and severyte. 1538 St. Papers Hen. VIII, VIII. 50 Wher as severitie is to be used ayenst the anabaptistes. 1582 N.T. (Rheims) Rom. xi. 22 See then the goodnes and the seueritie of God. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 47, I laugh to see your Ladyship so fond, To thinke, that you haue ought but Talbots shadow, Whereon to practise your seueritie. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, 235 As for the Seueritie vsed vpon those which were taken in Kent, it was but vpon a Scumme of People. 1680 Dryden Pref. Ovid's Ep. Ess. 1900 I. 231 The Emperor who condemned him had as little reason as another man to punish that fault with so much severity. 1752 Hume Polit. Disc. x. (ed. 2) 203 Excessive severity in the laws is apt to beget great relaxation in their execution. 1838 Thirlwall Greece xli. V. 178 His regulations were..enforced with inflexible severity. 1856 Kane Arctic Explor. I. xxxii. 443, I have to guard its ventilation with all the severity that would befit a surgical ward. 1868 E. Edwards Ralegh I. iii. 41 An illustrious poet..apologises for it [the massacre] as an act of unavoidable severity. |
b. An act or instance of severity.
| 1538 Starkey England 120 A lyke seueryte I fynd in the punnyschment of treson. 1689 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 613 The severityes towards the protestants were continued. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 201 That so a colour might be put on their severities against such as should refuse it. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 157 There is a Difference between an Ecclesiastical Censure, and an Ecclesiastical Severity: For under the Appellation of a Censure we only include Excommunication, Suspension, and an Interdict; but under the Denomination of an Ecclesiastical Severity, every other Punishment of the Church is intended... But according to some, a Censure and a Severity is the same Thing. 1871 Fraser Berkeley ii. 19 The severities of Tyrconnel obliged Molyneux to fly to England. |
c. Harshness of judgement, criticism, or rebuke. Also pl., severe rebukes or criticisms.
| 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 2 Though I received some severities from my mother on this occasion. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. Ep. Ded., The Devout..will be scrupulous to be more Severe to these Papers, than a Person in whom, upon the score of her own Style, Severity were more justifiable than in most Readers. 1713 Steele Englishm. No. 50. 326, I should be very loth to see you fall with too particular a severity upon the Error. 1784 Cowper Task v. 170 'Twas but a mortifying stroke Of undesign'd severity, that glanc'd..On human grandeur and the courts of kings. 1859 Bagehot Lit. Stud. (1879) I. 176 We should think it unseemly to criticise the..work..with extreme severity. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus v. 2 Sour severity, tongue of eld maligning. 1884 R. W. Church Bacon i. 2 Bacon has been judged with merciless severity. |
d. Sternness of aspect or countenance; a severe look or expression.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 160 ¶11, I think, says the Author, I never saw a greater Severity than in this Man's Face. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch, Cleomenes V. 177 In the court, where, with a silent severity of aspect, he observed all that passed. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia vii. vi, How will his noble mother disdain me! how cruelly shall I sink before the severity of her eye! 1828 J. W. Croker Diary 21 Apr., [Sir J.] Moore's countenance assumed a great severity. |
e. transf. in reference to handling or dealing with inanimate objects.
| 1878 J. Marshall Ann. Tennis 112 Though not playing with so much severity as some others, he yet can cut the ball so as to make and win short chases on the floor with some certainty. 1898 W. W. Jacobs Sea Urchins, Grey Parrot (1906) 219 Mr. Gannett..with a small knife dug with much severity and determination a hardened plug from the bowl [of his pipe]. |
2. Strictness or austerity of life, morals, etc.
| 1481 Botoner Tulle on Old Age (Caxton) g ij (R.), Seuerity is continuance and perseuerance of oon maner of lyuyng as wele in the thyngys within as in theym withoute. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Seuere, Life passed in great seueritie and grauitie. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 178 We would..with more seueritie direct the sequele of our life, for the feare of present death. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. i. 225 Beauty steru'd with her seuerity, Cuts beauty off from all posteritie. 1680 Dryden Pref. Ovid's Ep. Ess. 1900 I. 230 'Tis true, they [Ovid's Elegies, etc.] are not to be excused in the severity of manners. 1728 Law Serious C. xviii. (1732) 329 Such severity of behaviour, such abstinence [etc.]. 1741 Middleton Cicero II. viii. 256 He affected the severity of the Stoic. 1903 in Westcott Life Bp. Westcott I. 23, I had ever before me what I may call the severity of his example. |
b. pl.
| 1673 Ladies Calling i. i. ¶10. 8 Tho these first severities were soon lost in the successes of that Empire. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian vi, O, Ellena! let the severities of custom yield to the security of my happiness. 1826 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Wedding, The tristful severities of a funeral. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 291 The ordinary prudences and severities of conscience. |
3. Strictness in matters of thought or intellect; rigid accuracy or exactness; undeviating conformity to truth or fact. Also pl. instances of this.
| 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 73 Then the Artists them⁓selves, the severitie and integritie of whose judgements is often weakened by the love of their owne and the dislike of other mens workes. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. i. 27 A sort of Men that pretend to much severity of Wit, and would be thought too wise to be imposed upon by Credulity. 1693 Dryden Disc. Satire Ess. 1900 II. 24, I may say it, with all the severity of truth, that every line of yours is precious. 1791 Burke Let. Memb. Nat. Assembly Wks. 1834 I. 477 The process of reasoning called deductio ad absurdum, which even the severity of geometry does not reject. 1834 Burke's Wks. I. Introd. 75 A vagueness and looseness of language quite incompatible with precision of thought, and utterly inconsistent with the severity of philosophy. a 1859 De Quincey Syst. Heavens Wks. 1889 III. 194 A wish for the naked severities of science, with a total absence from all display of enthusiasm. 1864 Hamerton Doré in Fine Arts Q. Rev. III. 2, I have but one law of conduct in criticism which is to judge..neither with indulgence nor prejudiced harshness, but with severity (in its true sense) stating qualities and defects with equal force. |
4. Austere purity or simplicity of style, taste, etc.
| 1709 Felton Diss. Classics (1718) 18 Considering the Disadvantage of the Language, and the Severity of the Roman Muse, the Poem is still more Wonderful. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man iii. i, The severity of French taste. 1858 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 153 Look at that old hound... Look at the severity, delicacy, lightness of every curve. 1859 Jephson Brittany iii. 36 The modest severity of the Breton dress. 1883 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Nov. 90/2 That severity of treatment on which the success of iron-work greatly depends. |
5. Rigour or inclemency (of weather or climate); esp. extremity of cold.
| a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. 210 The severity of the Winter finds them [sc. Insects] out and destroys them. 1794 Morse Amer. Geog. 112 Winter continues with such severity from December to April, as that the largest rivers are frozen over. 1826 Lamb Let. to V. Novello 9 May, Summer, as my friend Coleridge waggishly writes, has set in with its usual severity [also alleged to be a phrase of H. Walpole's]. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola ii. v, The bare wintry morning, the chill air, were welcome in their severity. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. iv. 175 The severity of the climate in this part of Asia may be estimated by a comparison of this January and July temperatures of Astrachan. 1912 Cowley Evangelist 181 We have had on three successive evenings thunderstorms of increasing severity. |
6. Violence or acuteness (of illness).
| 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 362 Nor does this disease at all seem to increase either in severity or in frequency. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 126 The eruption..increased in severity till death. 1893 A. S. Eccles Sciatica 68 After a period of rest..varying in duration..according to the severity of the case. |
7. Grievousness (of pain, affliction, penalties, etc.).
| 1849–50 Alison Hist. Eur. xxix. (1854) IV. 309 They now felt the severity of the confiscation they had inflicted on others. 1890 Nicolay & Hay Lincoln X. 314 The news [of Lincoln's assassination] fell with peculiar severity upon the hearts which were glowing with the joy of a great victory. 1893 Law Times XCIV. 600/2 The [income] tax falls with excessive and undue severity upon one class, and with unreasonable lightness upon others. |