1. (superl.) Serious in feeling or manner; sedate; grave; austere; not light, lively, or cheerful.

2. (superl.) Very strict in judgment, discipline, or government; harsh; not mild or indulgent; rigorous; as, severe criticism; severe punishment.

3. (superl.) Rigidly methodical, or adherent to rule or principle; exactly conformed to a standard; not allowing or employing unnecessary ornament, amplification, etc.; strict; -- said of style, argument, etc.

4. (superl.) Sharp; afflictive; distressing; violent; extreme; as, severe pain, anguish, fortune; severe cold.

5. (superl.) Difficult to be endured; exact; critical; rigorous; as, a severe test.

Draconian Herculean Siberian Spartan Spartanic abrupt absolute absolutist absolutistic abstruse acerbic acid acidulous acrid acrimonious acute afflictive aggressive agonizing algid aloof arbitrary arctic arduous aristocratic arrogant ascetic asperous astringent atrocious austere authoritarian authoritative autocratic awful badly bald bare basic bearish beastly below zero biting bitter bitterly cold bleak blistering bluff blunt blustering blustery boreal bossy brash brisk brumal brusque brutal burdensome candid caustic cavalier chaste churlish close cold cold as charity cold as death cold as ice cold as marble common commonplace complex constant cramping crimpy crisp critical crude cruel crusty curt cutting dangerous delicate demanding despotic dictatorial difficile difficult dire direct disagreeable disciplined distressing domineering double-edged dour drastic dreadful dry dull edged effortful elementary escharotic essential even exact exacting excessive excruciating exigent exorbitant express extravagant extreme faithful fastidious fatal feudal fierce fine flinty forbidding formidable frank freezing freezing cold frigid fundamental furious gelid glacial glowering gnawing grave gravely great grievous grim grinding griping gruff hairy hard hard-earned hard-fought hardly harrowing harsh harshly heavy heavy-handed hibernal hiemal high-handed homely homespun homogeneous hostile hurtful hurting hyperborean ice-cold ice-encrusted icelike icy immoderate imperative imperial imperious incisive inclement indivisible inerrable inerrant inexorable infallible inflexible inhospitable inhuman inornate intemperate intense intensely intricate iron-willed irreducible irritating jawbreaking keen knotted knotty laborious lean lordly magisterial magistral markedly masterful mathematical matter-of-fact mean merciless mere meticulous micrometrically precise microscopic modest monastic monocratic monolithic mordacious mordant mortal mortified natural neat nice nipping nippy no picnic nose-tickling not easy numbing obdurate of a piece onerous open operose oppressive outrageous overbearing overruling painful painfully painstaking paroxysmal penetrating peremptory piercing pinching pinpoint piquant pitiless plain plain-speaking plain-spoken poignant precise primal primary primitive