1. (a.) Simple; unadorned; sour; astringent; rough to the state; having acerbity; as, an austere crab apple; an austere instructor.

2. (a.) Severe in modes of judging, or living, or acting; rigid; rigorous; stern; as, an austere man, look, life.

3. (a.) Unadorned; unembellished; severely simple.

Albigensian Catharist Franciscan Lenten Sabbatarian Spartan Spartanic Trappist Waldensian abstemious abstinent amaroidal anchoritic ascetic astringent authoritarian bald bare basic biting bitter bleak candid chaste common commonplace demanding direct dour dry dull dwarfed dwarfish earnest elementary eremitic essential exacting exigent exiguous flagellant frank frugal fundamental grave grim hard harsh homely homespun homogeneous impoverished inclement indivisible inornate irreducible jejune keen lean limited matter-of-fact meager mean mendicant mere meticulous miserly monolithic mortified narrow natural neat of a piece open paltry parsimonious plain plain-speaking plain-spoken poor primal primary prosaic prosing prosy puny pure pure and simple puritanical rigoristic rough rugged rustic scant scanty scrawny scrimp scrimpy self-denying serious severe sharp simon-pure simple simple-speaking single skimp skimpy slender slight slim small sober somber spare sparing stark starvation stern stingy stinted straightforward straitened strict stringent stunted subsistence thin tough unadorned unaffected uncluttered undecorated undifferenced undifferentiated unelaborate unembellished unfancy unfussy ungentle uniform unimaginative unnourishing unnutritious unornamented unornate unpoetical unsparing unvarnished watered watery wedded to poverty