Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Austerity
1.
Sourness and harshness to the taste.
[Obs.]
Horsley.
2.
Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
The
austerity
of John the Baptist. Milton.
3.
Plainness; freedom from adornment; severe simplicity.
Partly owing to the studied
austerity
of her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. Hawthorne.
Webster 1828 Edition
Austerity
AUSTER'ITY
,Noun.
Definition 2024
austerity
austerity
English
Noun
austerity (countable and uncountable, plural austerities)
- Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
- Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity.
- (economics) A policy of deficit-cutting, which by definition requires lower spending, higher taxes, or both.
- 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian:
- He said France clearly wanted to "close one page and open another". He reiterated his opposition to austerity alone as the only way out of Europe's crisis: "My final duty, and I know I'm being watched from beyond our borders, is to put Europe back on the path of growth and employment."
-
- (obsolete) Sourness and harshness to the taste.
Antonyms
- (severity of manners or life): comfort
Related terms
Translations
severity of manners or life
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sourness and harshness to the taste
policy of deficit-cutting: reduce spending and/or raise taxes
References
- austerity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913