severest

Adjective

severe (comparative severer or more severe, superlative severest or most severe)

1. Very bad or intense.
   • In the severer cases of hookworm the patient sometimes has an appetite for soil, paper, hair, clay, chalk, starch, and other unpalatables.1934, Your Germs and Mine, page 295

   Synonyms:

   extreme, intense, acute

   Antonyms:

   mild, minor

2. Strict or harsh.
   • a severe taskmaster

   Synonyms:

   brutal, hard, heartless, heavy, rigorous, serious, callous, cold, insensate, hardhanded

   Antonyms:

   lenient

3. Sober, plain in appearance, austere.
   • a severe old maiden aunt

   Synonyms:

   modest, simple, austere, bare, chaste, inornate, plain, quiet, spartan, unadorned

See all 4 meanings of severe

Verb

sever (third-person singular simple present severs, present participle severing, simple past and past participle severed)

1. (transitive) To cut free.
   • After he graduated, he severed all links to his family.

   Synonyms:

   hew

2. (intransitive) To suffer disjunction; to be parted or separated.
   • No more can I be seuered from your side1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
3. (intransitive) To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish.
   • The Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 9:4
4. To disconnect; to disunite; to terminate.
   • sever an estate in joint tenancy1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC