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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
severely
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
badly/severely/seriously damage
▪ Smoking can severely damage your health.
be badly/severely burned
▪ His face had been badly burned in the fire.
be badly/severely/hard hit
▪ The company has been hard hit by the drop in consumer confidence.
heavily/seriously/severely polluted
▪ The lake is seriously polluted.
heavily/severely/badly etc polluted
▪ The island has been seriously polluted by a copper mine.
punish severely
▪ He promised to punish severely any officials found guilty of electoral fraud.
severely depleted
▪ Salmon populations have been severely depleted.
severely disabled
▪ a severely disabled polio patient
severely/drastically curtail
▪ Budget cuts have drastically curtailed training programs.
severely/seriously depressed (=very depressed)
▪ He became severely depressed after losing his job.
sharply/severely/drastically (=cut a lot)
▪ Housing benefit was sharply cut for all but the poorest people.
strongly/severely/heavily criticize sb/sth
▪ Public transport has been severely criticized in the report.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
depressed
▪ Boltwood rubbed a little on the forehead of a four year-old who immune system was severely depressed.
▪ Some one who is more severely depressed may feel physically ill as well as gloomy.
▪ Betty, aged 43, was severely depressed when I first met her.
disabled
▪ About 70 percent of those elderly persons living with younger people are severely disabled.
▪ It's a challenge for the cast, some of whom are severely disabled.
▪ However, it is not just the severely disabled who can benefit from computers.
▪ She is severely disabled and he takes her everywhere.
▪ Fears that disabled drivers particularly the severely disabled will find it impossible to shop in the town were raised.
▪ Subjects 181 severely disabled adults and their carers.
▪ The state depends on these relationships for the support of the vast majority of severely disabled old people.
▪ The Independent Living Fund has proved a great success in giving severely disabled people an opportunity to live in the community.
handicapped
▪ For example, the Rowntree Trust Family Fund has been helpful to families with severely handicapped children.
▪ More severely handicapped people often suffer from physical as well as mental disabilities.
▪ A family with a severely handicapped child will have many problems.
▪ Mencap's Day Services campaign indicates that the most desperate need is for the severely handicapped and those with behavioural difficulties.
ill
▪ Halmi etal, found a lifetime prevalence of 68% for major depression in a sample of severely ill anorexia nervosa patients.
▪ A lumbar puncture is necessary for those who are severely ill or in those who show any suggestion of nuchal rigidity.
▪ First, only inpatients were evaluated since we aimed to study prognosis in this more severely ill group.
▪ He fell severely ill in 1989 while on a visit to the United States.
▪ A few of these people react to a great variety of chemicals and foods, and are quite severely ill.
▪ Without time passing in a familiar manner, the severely ill lose the story line of their lives.
▪ Those admitted from the waiting list will usually be quite fit but patients who are admitted as emergencies may be severely ill.
▪ Anyone earning more than £30,000 would be severely worse off.
limited
▪ This poses enormous problems for developing countries with severely limited educational resources, especially in the rural areas of those countries.
▪ Individually, workers may feel that they are severely limited, even powerless, in what they can do.
▪ In that severely limited sense, and only in that, the new anti-Modernism was anti-intellectual.
▪ Once eukaryotes had evolved, it seems that opportunities for genetic exchange would have been severely limited.
▪ Yet charities' resources are often severely limited and funding in this sector is notoriously precarious.
▪ Our potential to influence the structure, responsibilities and policies of government is severely limited.
▪ He worried over the pace of his build-up, which he knew should be quickened though resources for this were severely limited.
■ VERB
affect
▪ It has also been severely affected by debt and regional conflicts.
▪ In addition the eyes are more severely affected and become filmed over and inflamed; they finally bulge and burst.
▪ Since 1980, education has been severely affected by the war, at times almost paralysed by it.
▪ If a strike does take place, commuters in the Northeast would be severely affected.
▪ The gene is found on the X chromosome, males being more severely affected than females.
▪ Patients as severely affected as my mother must have felt that only their brains and hearts lived.
▪ Local populations of some dolphins have been severely affected by the use of shark nets to protect bathers.
▪ Often the smallest calves are most severely affected.
beat
▪ About a month ago he was severely beaten up by a gang of white boys on the way back from school.
▪ One woman was really severely beaten.
▪ He was severely beaten by his drunken captors until one of them ended his life by a blow with an axe.
▪ He was not severely beaten but was terrified.
become
▪ That shareholder control had become severely attenuated was certainly accepted in Britain by 1945.
▪ A 47-year-old married man with two teen-age children became severely depressed after losing his job as an advertising executive.
▪ During this time the male is unable to feed properly and becomes severely emaciated.
▪ The engram bank becomes severely distorted by painful emotion and the areas of painful emotion be-come severely distorted by physical pain elsewhere.
▪ The gastrointestinal tract, however, is another are that may become severely affected by autonomic neuropathy.
burned
▪ One fireman was severely burned in a rescue attempt.
▪ Anyone touching him is severely burned.
▪ Following a laboratory explosion, his hand was severely burned.
constrain
▪ It is also interesting to note that often they are severely constrained.
▪ But they are severely constrained by the time-table of forty-minute periods.
criticised
▪ Understandably, many of his old flock in Kidderminster severely criticised him for this.
▪ It is hard to know why this report has been so severely criticised by Smith and others.
▪ They have been severely criticised by almost all hon. Members during the debate.
criticize
▪ In 1972 he had suggested independence as Ulster's best course and been severely criticized by Paisley and others.
▪ Whenever Mother had severely criticized Megan Wai-la, Father was at work.
▪ As the war dragged on with little success, he was severely criticized.
curtail
▪ Since 1979, public sector housing has been severely curtailed.
▪ We will ensure that their influence is severely curtailed and, if possible, removed.
▪ Specialised services on drugs and undercover activity were severely curtailed.
▪ Arkies will never agree to one which doesn't severely curtail our freedoms.
cut
▪ Everyone is wearing black, the men are in somber suits, the women in severely cut unadorned dresses.
▪ The teachers said many toddlers' feet had already been severely cut.
damage
▪ A two storey building and some caravans were severely damaged.
▪ A severely damaged Royal Navy destroyer burns through the day with exploding ordnance and great sudden flares of burning bunker oil.
▪ The Amerada Hess Corporation oil refinery, with a capacity of 545,000 barrels per day, was also severely damaged.
▪ We have a flood control system that is severely damaged.
▪ The front room was severely damaged and no one was injured in the incident.
▪ Twin quakes on Sept. 26 killed 10 people and severely damaged the basilica in Assisi.
▪ The fifth car appears to have been on the outer track, which was severely damaged north of the bridge.
▪ His right arm was severely damaged, and his young son also suffered in the attack.
deplete
▪ With the onset of World War 11, the ranks were severely depleted, and the forest work camps were closed.
▪ But clan warfare has severely depleted the amount of food getting through.
depress
▪ At worst, we can become anxious, insecure and severely depressed.
▪ A 47-year-old married man with two teen-age children became severely depressed after losing his job as an advertising executive.
▪ Also, an overdose of barbiturates can severely depress the central nervous system and lead to death.
▪ What she is, though I do not know it at the time, is severely depressed.
disable
▪ They may have to care for a severely disabled child with very little help.
▪ Three schools said their only limits were on severely disabled students.
▪ For example, it enables the more severely disabled to adapt equipment, such as computers, to meet their needs.
▪ All 4 groups of severely disabled children need-and deserve to have-proper care and support.
▪ He could hold on to office even though so severely disabled as to be unable to lead.
▪ I had a man who was retarded and who was also severely disabled physically.
disrupt
▪ In other words, the education of 250,000 pupils is being severely disrupted.
▪ Environmentalists fear that, if completed, the hydro-electric dam will severely disrupt the Danube ecosystem.
▪ Soviet trade through Iasi was severely disrupted, as was trade with the West through Timisoara.
▪ Boxing Day frost threat Frost is threatening to severely disrupt the busy Boxing Day programme.
hamper
▪ This lack of impact had severely hampered Wilder's fundraising ef-forts.
▪ Geest warned in the autumn that oversupply in the final quarter of 1995 would severely hamper its full-year bottom line.
handicap
▪ Many people are searching for faith again, but they are severely handicapped.
▪ Finally some friends of theirs who had a severely handicapped child told Mike this was illegal: that they had some rights.
▪ Economic development since independence was severely handicapped by sabotage and political strife.
▪ Living with other severely handicapped people, Mother also had plenty of reminders of the fragility of her existence.
▪ At issue is his controversial view that parents have the right to euthanize severely handicapped new-born children.
▪ A second level of priority was assigned to provisions for those severely handicapped children whose educations were judged to be inadequate.
▪ About 40 of the most severely handicapped learn basic social skills.
▪ Of these 7. 5 million youngsters, nearly half are presumed to be severely handicapped by their mental disorder.
hit
▪ Professional families, where the mother stays at home to look after the children, would be severely hit.
impair
▪ Acute schizophrenia can severely impair mothering skills when maternal distress leads to distraction and neglect.
▪ If renal function is severely impaired, acetazolamide is ineffective.
▪ Part of the problem is that they are often on tasks that are also severely impaired after destruction of primary visual cortex.
▪ Such a large amount of excess capacity must severely impair the effective functioning of the accelerator.
injure
▪ A car bomb exploded at a police station in Burgos on Aug. 17, severely injuring one person.
▪ Ulcers also are more likely to occur when a child is ill or has been severely injured.
▪ She was severely injured but made a full recovery.
▪ Mr Parfitt was in constant pain after severely injuring his back in a laboratory accident 22 years ago.
▪ You attacked, knocked out and severely injured your victim.
▪ At the receiving end of the violent punch Armand Proietti was severely injured and required surgery.
▪ A spokesman for Darlington police said both women had been fortunate not to have been more severely injured in the crash.
▪ We have notes on two hunter's wives severely injured by plummeting pheasants.
limit
▪ Its toxicity has severely limited its use as an antiulcer drug but either it or its analogues are occasionally used clinically.
▪ In some states, claims for pain and suffering were outlawed entirely or severely limited.
▪ However, the short scale, coupled with such light gauge strings for a bass, severely limits this facility.
▪ But this entrepreneur moved to a small country town where the workforce was severely limited.
▪ The impact of the book, however, was severely limited by its size.
▪ This was inconvenient, to say the least, and severely limited the amount of work that could be done.
▪ Obviously the simple non-availability of the result must severely limit the significance that employers can place on exam-passing perse.
▪ As we have seen, the marketplace itself severely limits the quality of information and diversity of ideas.
punish
▪ What concerned us more was the news that anyone sheltering or helping escaped prisoners-of-war would be severely punished.
▪ He notes that whenever earnings problems have emerged, investors have severely punished stocks.
▪ Again, if the early screams of protest have been severely punished, regard for their own need may feel too dangerous.
▪ Belle has already been severely punished.
▪ It means inflicting an injury which would be severely punished by a court of law if it was inflicted during an argument.
▪ Anyone, even of their own number, who had harmed it would have been severely punished.
▪ She had been intercepted outside Guy's room and would be severely punished, perhaps even killed.
▪ Thorn threatened after the Van Exel incident to severely punish the next player who made physical contact with a referee.
reduce
▪ That change has severely reduced the amount of pension that many pensioners receive.
▪ It has little effect at low currents but severely reduces voltage at high currents.
▪ Clearly this was an unsatisfactory procedure severely reducing the acceptability of his answer.
▪ Children with these conditions will be averse to glare and have severely reduced vision in bright sunlight.
reprimand
▪ In May 1989, a registrar admitted a drink-driving charge and was severely reprimanded by the Lord Chancellor.
▪ The hapless Sidney Barnett was found guilty of assault and severely reprimanded by the court.
▪ The baffled executioners were severely reprimanded before getting another crack at Vincent.
▪ Debra remembered as a very young child being severely reprimanded by her father.
restrict
▪ Nor will the legal guarantee of freedom of speech be of much use if access to the mass media is severely restricted.
▪ The variety of genetic and morphological forms is severely restricted.
▪ And now Lord Chancellor Lord MacKay has warned that spending cuts are likely to severely restrict the amount of aid available.
▪ Victorian women wore severely restricting corsets to achieve an hourglass shape.
▪ Most Western governments ban or severely restrict the chemical.
▪ She went on dialysis and discovered her life as a high school physical education teacher and athlete would be severely restricted.
▪ A quarter of the world's population lives in countries in which abortion is severely restricted or is defined as a crime.
▪ At the moment nationalised industries are severely restricted in the way they borrow money.
shake
▪ Your fellow-passengers, severely shaken, Will almost all be loath to stick around.
▪ Mr Harrison emerged with cuts and bruises, and severely shaken.
strain
▪ Relations between the two states were severely strained.
▪ And relations between Dublin and London have been severely strained.
▪ She was already twenty-one and their self-imposed tests of constraint were severely strained.
▪ A high-spending boom followed by bust and recession have severely strained relationships of all kinds.
suffer
▪ In later years she suffered severely from asthma.
▪ The author of the Book of Revelation suffered severely from this split.
▪ The second night he did not feel well and suffered severely from sleepiness.
▪ Her burial garments were said to have suffered severely from the dampness.
▪ Urban economic and political development suffered severely from the social and demographic upheaval set in train during Ivan IV's reign.
▪ Towns like Lefors suffer severely when industries on which their economies rest falter.
▪ The credibility of your work will suffer severely if key words, such as technical terms or people's names, are misspelled.
▪ The Confederates, having themselves suffered severely, made no more attacks at this point.
test
▪ Thus, the durability of Czechoslovakia's democratic transition will be severely tested in the coming months.
▪ In the south, however, the Vietminh was being severely tested.
▪ There may be isolated incidents which severely test the policy.
▪ In 1557, however, Paul once again took action which severely tested the relationship.
undermine
▪ Liberation has turned sour producing anomie and alienation, severely undermining any sense of collective responsibility or response.
▪ Car ownership and use grow continuously, severely undermining the government's fragile attempts to improve the environment.
▪ Insomnia can severely undermine a person's ability to cope with other problems, including the stress of grieving.
▪ Lax local authority policies and the undermining of policies of restraint on appeal, severely undermine processes of urban regeneration.
▪ The Army's preference to appear neutral was severely undermined by its role during the Loyalist marching season of 1970.
▪ Ozawa's concessions in the negotiations with Komeito were seen by many commentators as having severely undermined his position.
weaken
▪ Four years of drought and rapidly declining business had left all five branches of the Inyo County Bank severely weakened.
wounded
▪ The less fortunate were the severely wounded who were being placed on the grass with two medics to attend to their wounds.
▪ The second man was severely wounded.
▪ Although severely wounded, Atkinson rescued five seamen and was awarded the Albert medal.
▪ We have also left the enemy all our dead and the greater part of our severely wounded.
▪ Malcolm himself was severely wounded in the leg.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
severely disabled children
▪ a severely damaged building
▪ Her hair was pulled back severely from her face.
▪ Martinson spoke severely about his opponent's voting record in the Senate.
▪ Medical facilities are severely limited in the area.
▪ She grew up in a house where the children were often severely punished.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A 47-year-old married man with two teen-age children became severely depressed after losing his job as an advertising executive.
▪ A two storey building and some caravans were severely damaged.
▪ At two years old, or thereabouts, I was severely judgmental about receiving and bestowing pleasure.
▪ For the courts to demand that parents must keep alive severely deformed children against their will is perverse and unkind.
▪ In the fight that followed, Griffith beat Paret so severely that he died several days later.
▪ It has been converted to provide accommodation for up to 60 chronically sick or severely disabled residents.
▪ State judicial selection procedures are even more severely criticized.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Severely

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.

    Your looks alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe.
    --Waller.

  2. Very strict in judgment, discipline, or government; harsh; not mild or indulgent; rigorous; as, severe criticism; severe punishment. ``Custody severe.''
    --Milton.

    Come! you are too severe a moraler.
    --Shak.

    Let your zeal, if it must be expressed in anger, be always more severe against thyself than against others.
    --Jer. Taylor.

  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.

    The Latin, a most severe and compendious language.
    --Dryden.

  4. Sharp; afflictive; distressing; violent; extreme; as, severe pain, anguish, fortune; severe cold.

  5. Difficult to be endured; exact; critical; rigorous; as, a severe test.

    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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
severely

1540s, from severe + -ly (2). Colloquial sense of "excessively" attested by 1854.

Wiktionary
severely

adv. In a severe manner.

WordNet
severely
  1. adv. to a severe or serious degree; "fingers so badly frozen they had to be amputated"; "badly injured"; "a severely impaired heart"; "is gravely ill"; "was seriously ill" [syn: badly, gravely, seriously]

  2. with sternness; in a severe manner; "`No,' she said sternly"; "peered severely over her glasses" [syn: sternly]

  3. causing great damage or hardship; "industries hit hard by the depression"; "she was severely affected by the bank's failure" [syn: hard]

Usage examples of "severely".

And even if he were to relapse into the same heresy which he had abjured, he would still not be liable to the said penalty, although he would be more severely punished than would have been the case if he had not abjured.

When the return of famine severely admonished them of the importance of the arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigration of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part of their youth.

On the way, Alameda turned around and smiled at him, and the expression on her face startled him so severely that he tripped on the step-off pad of the hatch to the special operations compartment tunnel, catching himself on the hatch opening.

He then rendered it suffocating by closing the amado, for the reason often given, that if he left them open and the house was robbed, the police would not only blame him severely, but would not take any trouble to recover his property.

In Key West, the storm disabled the anemometers at the weather observation office, along with seven hundred feet of new concrete dock being installed by the War Department, and finished off the three-story concrete cigar factory of the Havana-American Company, severely damaged in the hurricane the year before.

William had immediately sent troops across the bateau bridge to warn them that any insurrection would be dealt with swiftly and severely.

This was the temple of Saturn, very old and large and severely Doric except for the garish colors bedaubing its wooden walls and pillars, home of an ancient statue of the God that had to be kept filled with oil and swaddled with cloth to prevent its disintegration.

Later, when they were quieter and waiting for the night staff to come on duty, Zuster Bunsma told her rather severely that she would be missed and that it was to be hoped that she would return when Mijnheer Beek was recovered.

McEwell returns to Ontario in 1980 after a biker beats him severely with his own wooden leg.

It will never be known how severely Bock was tempted by the extremities thus exposed to him, but he was an old dog and his martial instincts had been undermined by years of kindness.

On his monthly reserve tours at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, Bucca had seen the intel suggesting that the FBI had severely underestimated the strength and intent of the cell surrounding Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

He looked up from his current patientan Otolla Gungan observer from Naboo, who had had his buccal cavity severely varicosed by a sonic pistol blast the day before.

Severely paralyzed on his left side and diagnosed with bulbar palsy, he now moves about with the use of a walker.

I examined my conduct, I judged myself severely, I could not find myself guilty of any crime save of too much kindness, but I perceived how right the good Father Georgi had been.

I do the weakness of the human heart, I could never have believed that throughout so long and intimate an acquaintance you could have kept yourself so severely within bounds.