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Austere

 - 3 dictionary results

aus⋅tere

  [aw-steer]
Use Austere in a Sentence
–adjective
1. severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding: an austere teacher.
2. rigorously self-disciplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent: the austere quality of life in the convent.
3. grave; sober; solemn; serious: an austere manner.
4. without excess, luxury, or ease; simple; limited; severe: an austere life.
5. severely simple; without ornament: austere writing.
6. lacking softness; hard: an austere bed of straw.
7. rough to the taste; sour or harsh in flavor.
Origin:
1300–50; ME (< AF) < L austērus < Gk austērós harsh, rough, bitter

Related forms:
aus⋅tere⋅ly, adverb
aus⋅tere⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
4. Austere, bleak, spartan, stark all suggest lack of ornament or adornment and of a feeling of comfort or warmth. Austere usually implies a purposeful avoidance of luxury or ease: simple, stripped-down, austere surroundings. Bleak adds a sense of forbidding coldness, hopelessness, depression: a bleak, dreary, windswept plain. Spartan, somewhat more forceful than austere, implies stern discipline and rigorous, even harsh, avoidance of all that is not strictly functional: a life of Spartan simplicity. Stark shares with bleak a sense of grimness and desolation: the stark cliff face.

Antonyms:
4. luxurious, comfortable, lush; sybaritic.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Austere
aus·tere   (ô-stîr')   
adj.   aus·ter·er, aus·ter·est

  1. Severe or stern in disposition or appearance; somber and grave: the austere figure of a Puritan minister.

  2. Strict or severe in discipline; ascetic: a desert nomad's austere life. See Synonyms at severe.

  3. Having no adornment or ornamentation; bare: an austere style.


[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin austērus, from Greek austēros.]
aus·tere'ly adv., aus·tere'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

austere 
1330, from L. austerus "dry, harsh, sour, tart," from Gk. austeros "bitter, harsh," especially "making the tongue dry" (originally used of fruits, wines), related to auos "dry." Use in Eng. is figurative. Austerity is 1590 as "severe self-discipline;" 1875 as "severe simplicity." Applied during WWII to national policies limiting non-essentials as a wartime economy.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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