AUSTERITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Austerity

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/ˌɔstˈɛrɪti/ Listen

noun

Austerity n. (pl. austerities)

Sourness and harshness to the taste. (Obs.)

Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline. "The austerity of John the Baptist."

Plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity. "Partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners."

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Etymology of 'Austerity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Austerity" Quotes from Famous Books

... with light-hearted austerity. And then to Evan: "Don't you know that we are keeping country hours here at Wartrace now? The professor will be up and calling for the car at six o'clock, and it's past midnight. Shame on you! Run away and get ...

— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde

... glowing with the fires of utter convincement and the marvelous voice still unimpaired, Silas Crafts would have refused to believe that the passing years had changed him; yet now there was kinsman love to temper solemn austerity when he spoke to the lost sheep—as there might not have been ...

— The Quickening • Francis Lynde

... have made some general observations on the Christmas festivities of England, and am tempted to illustrate them by some anecdotes of a Christmas passed in the country; in perusing which I would most courteously invite my reader to lay aside the austerity of wisdom, and to put on that genuine holiday spirit which is tolerant of folly, and ...

— Old Christmas From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving • Washington Irving

... readily to yield to their pleasures and to comply with the desires of the multitude, as a steersman shifts with the winds. Quitting that loose, remiss, and, in some cases, licentious court of the popular will, he turned those soft and flowery modulations to the austerity of aristocratical and regal rule; but, employing this uprightly and undeviatingly for the country's best interests, he was able generally to lead the people along, with their own will and consent, by persuading and showing them ...

— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch

... the empty archway, the satisfaction on her face not veiling its pure austerity. She was not much past thirty-three, but she looked older, for she was gaunt. Her flesh had lost its firmness, her dressmaking had stooped her, her strong frame moved as if it habitually shouldered its way. ...

— Christmas - A Story • Zona Gale

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