Noun
The quality or state of being severe.
Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor; harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof; severity of discipline or government; severity of penalties.
The quality or power of distressing or paining; extreme degree; extremity; intensity; inclemency; as, the severity of pain or anguish; the severity of cold or heat; the severity of the winter.
Harshness; cruel treatment; sharpness of punishment; as, severity practiced on prisoners of war.
Exactness; rigorousness; strictness; as, the severity of a test.
Source: Webster's dictionaryThe unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight. Joseph Addison
When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. George Eliot
The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject. Matthew Arnold
The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the severity of a famine. Yoruba Proverb
People who have bread to eat do not appreciate the severity of a famine. French Proverb
People who have bread to eat do not appreciate the severity of a famine. Traditional Proverb