austere

adj

1. severe, harsh, strict, strait-laced, forbidding, hard, stern, grim; formal, aloof, cold, distant, stiff; inflexible, stilted, unbending, unyielding, rigid, tight; rigorous, relentless, unfeeling, inhuman, cruel; commanding, authoritative, authoritarian, peremptory.

2. abstemious, puritanical, puritan-like, abstinent, nonindulgent; moral, upright, righteous, right-minded, faultless, sinless; continent, chaste, celibate, virgin, virginal; restrained, self-restrained, controlled, self-controlled, self-disciplined, self-mortifying; ascetic, self-denying, self-abnegating.

3. serious, solemn, sober, formal; sedate, staid, conservative, reserved, dignified, poised; grave, important, consequential; significant, considered, concerned, responsible; momentous, weighty, heavy, ponderous, profound, intense.

4. subdued, quiet, soft, softened, mellow, toned down; gray, grayish, grayed, neutral; dull, dreary, mousy, drab; somber, dark, sad, gloomy, dun, heavy, leaden.

5. plain, simple, limited, unexaggerated, unem-broidered, unvarnished, unadorned, unembellished; unornamented, undecked, ungarnished, unenriched; prosaic, ordinary, commonplace. 6 hard, harsh, severe, cold, realistic, practical; solid, substantial, firm, sound, real, tangible.

7. rough, harsh, strong, pungent, poignant; sharp, keen, biting, stinging, caustic, acrimonious; bitter, sour, tart, acid, acerb, vinegarish, astringent; distasteful, unpleasant, unpalatable, unsavory, disagreeable, nasty.