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“severe”
sever, severe
sever (SEV uhr) (verb)
To cut, to separate or to divide: "After an argument, my brother decided to sever all communication with his former boss."
severe (suh VEER) (adjective)
1. Strict, stern, or rigorous in judgment: "He was his own most severe critic when talking about his new book."
2. Maintaining a scrupulous standard for behavior: "I thought that her expectations of the children’s behavior were severe considering their ages."
3. Harsh, difficult, causing discomfort: "A winter in Northern Canada can be severe if anyone is not prepared for it."
4. Requiring great effort: "The war is a severe test of his leadership ability."
2. Maintaining a scrupulous standard for behavior: "I thought that her expectations of the children’s behavior were severe considering their ages."
3. Harsh, difficult, causing discomfort: "A winter in Northern Canada can be severe if anyone is not prepared for it."
4. Requiring great effort: "The war is a severe test of his leadership ability."
She thought it was a rather severe decision on the part of her great aunt to sever all connections with her former colleagues when she retired.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group S; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 4)
severe (adjective)
1. Very harsh or strict; such as, a severe punishment.
2. Extremely bad or dangerous: "She had severe injuries from the fall down the stairs."
3. Looking stern or serious.
4. Causing great discomfort by being extreme: "Last night there was a severe thunder storm."
5. Difficult to do or to endure: "The excessive gas prices caused severe hardships."
6. Having standards or other criteria that are difficult to meet: "They had to pass a severe test."
7. Plain, or austere, in style, with little or no decoration.
8. Etymology: possibly borrowed through Middle French severe, or directly from latin severus, "stern, strict, serious"; possibly formed from the phrase se vero, "without kindness"; from se-, "without" + vero, "kindness".
2. Extremely bad or dangerous: "She had severe injuries from the fall down the stairs."
3. Looking stern or serious.
4. Causing great discomfort by being extreme: "Last night there was a severe thunder storm."
5. Difficult to do or to endure: "The excessive gas prices caused severe hardships."
6. Having standards or other criteria that are difficult to meet: "They had to pass a severe test."
7. Plain, or austere, in style, with little or no decoration.
8. Etymology: possibly borrowed through Middle French severe, or directly from latin severus, "stern, strict, serious"; possibly formed from the phrase se vero, "without kindness"; from se-, "without" + vero, "kindness".
(the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma)
(Greek: disease in which the bodily humors [biles] are subject to violent discharge; characterized by severe vomiting and diarrhea)
(Greek: to smoke; smoke, mist, vapor, hot vapor, steam, cloud, fog; stupor [insensibility, numbness, dullness]; used exclusively in medicine as a reference to fever accompanied by stupor or a clouding of the mind resulting from the fever caused by a severe-infectious disease)