severe
adjUK /sɪˈvɪə/ · US /sɪˈvɪɹ/
Etymology From Middle French, from Latin severus (“severe, serious, grave in demeanor”).
1
Very bad or intense.
- In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables.1934, Your Germs and Mine, page 295:
- Parkinsonism, at its severest, presents itself as an akinetic amimia (as opposed to certain cortical disorders which are amimic akinesias).1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings:
1 more example
- Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.2012 January 23, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2012, page 70:
2
Strict or harsh.
- a severe taskmaster
3
Sober, plain in appearance, austere.
- a severe old maiden aunt
- severe clothing
- Derived terms
- nonsevere, oversevere, semisevere, severe acute respiratory syndrome, severe clear, severe combined immunodeficiency, severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, severe gale, severely, severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy, severeness, severe tea, severity, supersevere, ultrasevere, unsevere