Of persons: oppressive; troublesome, annoying; angry; severe, violent. Obsolete.

Of pain, wounds, diseases, painful or destructive conditions: Cruel, terribly severe. Now only in weakened sense: cf. A. 2(b) A. 4b.

Severe, burdensome, oppressive. Of laws, punishments, suffering, condition of life, etc.: hard to bear, onerous; rigorous, harsh.

Of actions, speech, etc.: characterized by (undue) harshness or severity; cruel; tough. Cf. hard word, n. 1.

Cruel, dire, horrid, grievous. Obsolete.

Grievous, painful; unpleasant, disagreeable; loathsome, horrible.

Grievous, oppressive. Obsolete.

Hard, severe, heavy, grievous; fell, dire. archaic.

Causing pain or suffering; injurious, baleful, cruel, severe. Obs.

Of pain, punishment, suffering, discipline, law: Sharp, severe, painful, grievous. Obsolete.

Of an instrument, such as a rod, whip, etc.: inflicting or causing pain; biting, stinging; (of a weapon) sharp and cutting. Now rare and chiefly in…

Severe; causing much suffering.

Severe, strict, harsh. Of persons and their utterances: Cutting in rebuke, invective, or satire; harsh and peremptory in command. Also of looks…

Of conditions, sufferings, punishment, etc.: Pressing hardly, severe, rigorous. Obsolete.

Of a disease, wound, or pain: Causing great suffering or danger; acute, severe. Now rare.

Intensely painful or destructive; keen, piercing; deadly. Of a thing, esp. a natural agent, weapon, disease, suffering, poison, etc.

As an intensive, qualifying a word denoting something in itself bad, irksome, or undesirable: Grievous… of injury, loss, disease, etc. Obsolete.

Severe, sharp, unsparing.

Severe, stern.

Used as an intensive emphasizing some bad quality or condition; †also, heavy, severe.

Troublesome, vexatious, irksome; = importunate, adj. 2b. Formerly also: †severe, hard, cruel (obsolete). Now rare.

Unsparing, severe; rough. Obsolete.

? Strenuous, hard, severe.

Having great weight; heavy, massive; forcible, as a heavy blow. archaic and rare after early 16th cent.

Pressing hardly upon one; oppressively heavy or severe; difficult to bear or support.

Hard to bear or endure without failing or giving way; oppressive, burdensome, grievous.

Grievous, grave, severe. Obsolete.

Oppressive; severe; heavy. Obsolete.

Harsh to the feelings; bitter, cruel, severe.

Hard. literal and figurative.

Having the characteristics of a thorn or thorns; resembling a thorn in form or qualities.

Having a penetrating effect, typically unpleasantly or uncomfortably so. That has a powerful or intense effect on the senses or feelings; potent…

figurative. ‘Keen, biting, severe’ (Jamieson). Scottish. Obsolete.

Grievous, severe.

Of immaterial things: Hard; harsh.

That tugs, in various senses.

Stern, terrible, fierce; extremely violent. Obsolete.

Unpleasantly severe or hard.

Of events or circumstances, labour or exercise, a struggle or contest, a test, trial, etc.: Hard to sustain or endure; making great demands on…

Of circumstances and conditions, oppressive, compelling, hard, inexorable; esp. in the phrases stern necessity, stern reality.

That inflicts damage. (Of a task or activity) testing, demanding, exhausting; (of climate or conditions) harsh, injurious, oppressive.

Weighty, heavy; hard, grievous. Also, large or significant in size, and as adverb, ‘powerfully’, exceedingly.

Australian and New Zealand slang. Severe, difficult; unfair.