AUSTERITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does austerity mean? 

• AUSTERITY (noun)
  The noun AUSTERITY has 1 sense:

1. the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)

  Familiarity information: AUSTERITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUSTERITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

asceticism; austerity; nonindulgence

Hypernyms ("austerity" is a kind of...):

self-denial; self-discipline (the trait of practicing self discipline)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "austerity"):

monasticism (asceticism as a form of religious life; usually conducted in a community under a common rule and characterized by celibacy and poverty and obedience)

Derivation:

austere (practicing great self-denial)

 Context examples 

She was a lively young woman, sir, before marriage, and their gloom and austerity destroyed her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That he should have kept himself in training under such circumstances is remarkable, but his diet was usually of the sparest, and his habits were simple to the verge of austerity.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His countenance rather gained in austerity; and he scarcely opened his lips.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He examined my face, I thought, with austerity, as I came near: the traces of tears were doubtless very visible upon it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He spoke calmly, however, without austerity, without reproach, and she revived a little.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He relaxed the austerity of his manner.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There would be recesses in my mind which would be only mine, to which he never came, and sentiments growing there fresh and sheltered which his austerity could never blight, nor his measured warrior-march trample down: but as his wife—at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked—forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I felt some reflection of his elation in my own mind, for I knew well that he would not depart so far from his usual austerity of demeanour unless there was good cause for exultation.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)