Crossword clues for severest
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
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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. -
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. -
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. Sharp; afflictive; distressing; violent; extreme; as, severe pain, anguish, fortune; severe cold.
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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.
Wiktionary
Usage examples of "severest".
The pustules are only present in the severest forms or when the skin is very thin and tender.
And I venture with assurance to predict, that some time within the next fifty years, the Governments of England and of the United States, alarmed, it may be, by a continually increasing mortality from cancer, will condemn under severest penalties, the sale for human food of meat deriveed from animals affected by malignant disease,--no matter how great may be the pecuniary loss to every slaughtering establishment and packing-house in either land.
That he could not, however, help complaining a little against the peculiar severity of his fate, which brought the news of so great a calamity to him by surprize, and that at a time when he hourly expected the severest blow he was capable of feeling from the malice of fortune.
Timothy Harris, and other publicans of good taste, lament, as the severest lot annexed to their calling, namely, that of being obliged to keep company with their guests.
To these it is so far from being sufficient that their defence would acquit them at the Old Bailey, that they are not even contented, though conscience, the severest of all judges, should discharge them.
Could I, my Sophia, have flattered myself with the most distant hopes of being ever permitted to throw myself at your feet in the manner I do now, it would not have been in the power of any other woman to have inspired a thought which the severest chastity could have condemned.
He then rose again into passion, and attacked the young proselyte in the severest terms of reproach, so that both the ladies seemed to be much shocked.
Rather let me endure the severest mortification that neglect and penury can inflict, than lessen myself in my own estimation, and by yielding to the erroneous prejudices of the multitude, justly incur the censure of the most worthy and discerning.
Heaven, in the hope that, with the divine assistance, she might be enabled to triumph over the severest attacks of human misery.
The severest punishment which can be inflicted upon a person, is to entirely deprive him of sleep.
Infants and young children are peculiarly subject to this disorder, and, if the disease be not promptly arrested, it will assume the severest form and eventually become chronic.
Pruritus vulvae, in its severest forms, is often developed when the discharge is scarcely noticeable.
The treatment which we have advised has been put to the severest tests in the most severe forms of the disease, and has resulted most successfully.
This is one honorable instance, out of not a few, of personal respect and kindness shown to members of the Roman clergy and the Jesuit society by men who held these organizations in the severest reprobation.
If ever the assassination of a Prince deserved the severest punishment, it was the murder in July, 1584, of William the Silent, the leader of the Protestants of Holland in their struggle for independence from Spanish dominion.