2. Usually ascetic or religious practices: They existed in the austerities of monastery life.
3. The trait of great self-denial; especially, refraining from worldly pleasures: Their self-imposed austerities restricted them from what most people consider to be simple pleasures of life.
4. Difficult economic conditions that are created by government measures to reduce a budget deficit; especially, by reducing public expenditures: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Iceland, and other countries are required to develop austerities in order to qualify for monetary loans.
The citizens may have to endure years of austerities that will be placed on them by their governments.
The noun austerity is often heard in the news these days when some heads of state warn their people to be prepared to face "a period of austerity" as a result of economic crises.
Some Greeks have said that it is about time that the public sector trade unions also experience austerity because they have traditionally enjoyed generous benefits while the rest of the general population has "suffered" economically.
There is an air of inevitability about the upcoming austerity in Spain, to be outlined in the conservative government’s first full-year budget. Too much austerity could be self-defeating and even unrealistic, but Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy doesn’t have much of a choice.
Sticking to austerity at all costs may even be self-defeating if it sends the economy into a tailspin.
