In everyday life, "austere" means simple, strict, severe.
It is good to be reminded of the simple, even severe pleasures at the core of what is, after all, a social, homespun tradition.
Graham's scything movements are simple and severe: a leg slices up in a fan kick; the torso arches toward the sky and then the earth.
"They are plain, simple and severe, and although not elaborately finished, are cut with considerable freedom and skill," wrote E. G. Squier, an American explorer and diplomat who uncovered them in the 19th century on the island where they were carved.
The church itself, like most 18th-century Spanish mission sanctuaries, is simple, almost severe, its cool stone walls rising around rough wooden pews; its now-worn facade was once ornately decorated with tile and colorful frescoes.
In 1912 he became the director of Brussels's Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts and designed the Palais des Beaux-Arts (1922 28) in a simple and severe classical style.
Should he, however, come in contact with that allergen, even 20 or 30 years later, he may suffer anything from a mild allergic reaction a simple rash to severe anaphylactic shock, coma, or even death, depending upon the circumstances.
He had acted as a staunch defender of Puritan orthodoxy, with its zealous advocacy of a "pure," unaffected form of religious worship, its rigid adherence to a simple, almost severe, mode of life, and its conviction of the "natural depravity" of "fallen" man.
The answers were very similar whether the putative diarrhea was simple or severe.
Two types of malaria were recognized, simple and severe, the latter being associated with convulsions.
