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Seriousness; gravity; discretion. [Obs.] Her sadness and her benignity. Chaucer.

Grave; serious; solemn. [R.] "[Great bards.] in sage and solemn tunes have sung." Milton.

Hence, to fit for enjoyment; to render agrecable. You season still with sports your serious hours. Dryden. The proper use of wit is to season conversation. Tillotson.

Having a mixture of seriousness and sport; serious and comical.

Hence, a serious address; a lecture on one's conduct or duty; an exhortation or reproof; a homily; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

Serious in feeeling or manner; sedate; grave; austere; not light, lively, or cheerful. Your looks alter, as your subject does, From kind to fierce, from wanton to severe. Waller.

eve, to laugh privately or unperceived, especially while apparently preserving a grave or serious demeanor toward the person or persons laughed at; that is, perhaps, originally, by hiding the face in the wide sleeves of former times. -- To pin, or hang, on the sleeve of, to be, or make, dependent upon.…

, and cause all your family to do so too. Locke. It concerns every man, with the greatest seriousness, to inquire into those matters, whether they be so or not. Tillotson. He is Sir Robert's son, and so art thou. Shak.

Serious or subdued in demeanor, habit, appearance, or color; solemn; grave; sedate. What parts gay France from sober Spain Prior. See her sober over a sampler, or gay over a jointed baby. Pope. Twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad. Milton.

In a sober manner; temperately; cooly; calmly; gravely; seriously.

m enthusiasm, inordinate passion, or overheated imagination; calmness; coolness; gravity; seriousness; as, the sobriety of riper years. Mirth makes them not mad, Nor sobriety sad. Denham.

Fitted to awaken or express serious reflections; marked by seriousness; serious; grave; devout; as, a solemn promise; solemn earnestness. Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts. Milton. There reigned a solemn silence over all. Spenser.

Ceremoniousness; impressiveness; seriousness; grave earnestness; formal dignity; gravity. With much glory and great solemnity. Chaucer. The statelines and gravity of the Spaniards shows itself in the solemnity of their language. Addison. These promises were often made with great solemnity and confirmed with an oath. J.…

To make grave, serious, and reverential. Wordsworth was solemnizzed and elevated by this his first look on Yarrow. J. C. Shairp. Every Israelite . . . arose, solemnized his face, looked towards Jerusalem . . . and prayed. L. Wallace.

In a solemn manner; with gravity; seriously; formally. There in deaf murmurs solemnly are wise. Dryden. I do solemnly assure the reader. Swift.

Neat, without elegance or dignity; -- formerly applied to things with a serious meaning; now chiefly applied to persons. "Neat and spruce array." Remedy of Love.

The quality or state of being staid; seriousness; steadiness; sedateness; regularity; -- the opposite of wildness, or Ant: levity. If sometimes he appears too gray, yet a secret gracefulness of youth accompanies his writings, though the staidness and sobriety of age wanting. Dryden.

To excite by sudden alarm, surprise, or apprehension; to frighten suddenly and not seriously; to alarm; to surprise. The supposition, at least, that angels do sometimes assume bodies need not startle us. Locke.

or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree. The sterne wind so loud gan to rout. Chaucer. I would outstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak. When that the poor hav…

who swear by Lord Verulam." Miss Edgeworth. -- To swear off, to make a solemn vow, or a serious resolution, to abstain from something; as, to swear off smoking. [Slang]