AUSTERE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Austere

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɔstˈɪr/ Listen

adjective

Austere adj.

Sour and astringent; rough to the state; having acerbity; as, an austere crab apple; austere wine.

Severe in modes of judging, or living, or acting; rigid; rigorous; stern; as, an austere man, look, life. "From whom the austere Etrurian virtue rose."

Unadorned; unembellished; severely simple.

Synonyms: Harsh; sour; rough; rigid; stern; severe; rigorous; strict.

See images of 'Austere'

Etymology of 'Austere'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Austere" Quotes from Famous Books

... in black, with a very elegant and graceful figure, she had attracted him from the first. She had an air of great dignity and a grave and thoughtful face which made it impossible to penetrate the secret of her soul, and which would have seemed austere had it not been framed in a cloud of fair curls, resisting all attempts at discipline and setting a halo of light ...

— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... of the dead in desert places, Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor, Hills of sheep, and the homes of the silent vanished races, And winds austere and pure. ...

— Robert Louis Stevenson - a Record, an Estimate, and a Memorial • Alexander H. Japp

... a greater impression at Paris than the Turkish ambassador. He was generous and more gallant, paid his court with more address, and conformed more readily to French customs and manners. The Turk was irascible, austere, and irritable, while the Persian was fond of and well understood a joke. One day, however, he became red with anger, and it must be admitted not ...

— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant

... applause. Get what you want, set England fairly in sight of the crowd, and you are a mighty-minded man." Now the first and last comment upon such a doctrine must be that, if a God exist, it is false. It sets up a part to override the whole: it flaunts a local success against the austere majesty of Divine law. In brief, it foolishly derides the universal, saying that it chooses to consider the particular as more important. But it is not. Poetry's concern is with the universal: and what makes the Celts ...

— From a Cornish Window - A New Edition • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... the Arctic regions" as Marshall would say. Cold? There may be in the vast, dead planets of space places much colder than the North pole; but these would have been warm and comfortable compared with the atmosphere of Judge Woodworth-Granger's austere office when he turned his eyes on the person of Mr. James Gollop. Here before him, grinning and sticking out a plump, friendly hand, was the man to whose personal similarity he strongly objected, and of whose personal ...

— Mixed Faces • Roy Norton

More quotes...