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cy; -- opposed to severity and rigor. His exceeding lenity disposes us to be somewhat too severe. Macaulay.

A severe lecture; reproof; rebuke; warning. She would give her a lesson for walking so late. Sir. P. Sidney.

. To let on, to tell; to tattle; to divulge something. [Low] -- To let up, to become less severe; to diminish; to cease; as, when the storm lets up. [Colloq.]

Easy to be endured or performed; not severe; not difficult; as, a light affliction or task. Chaucer. Light sufferings give us leisure to complain. Dryden.

In a small degree; slightly; not severely. At the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun . . . and afterward did more grievously afflict her. Is. ix. 1.

Gay; airy; animated; spirited. From grave to gay, from lively to severe. Pope.

A severe beating with a stick, cudgel, or the fist.

In Russia, severe oppressive laws against Jews, which have given occasion for great persecution; -- so called because they received the assent of the czar in May, 1882, and because likened to the Prussian May laws (see Kulturkampf).

nd; soft; bland; clement; hence, moderate in degree or quality; -- the opposite of harsh, severe, irritating, violent, disagreeable, etc.; -- applied to persons and things; as, a mild disposition; a mild eye; a mild air; a mild medicine; a mild insanity. The rosy morn resigns her light And milder glory to the noon. Wal…

To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.

ing, or the state of being mitigated; abatement or diminution of anything painful, harsh, severe, afflictive, or calamitous; as, the mitigation of pain, grief, rigor, severity, punishment, or penalty.

To become less violent, severe, rigorous, or intense; as, the wind has moderated.

n extent or degree; to moderate; to qualify; to lower. Of his grace He modifies his first severe decree. Dryden.

To soil one's self with severe labor; to work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge. Moil not too much under ground. Bacon. Now he must moil and drudge for one he loathes. Dryden.

Biting; given to biting; hence, figuratively, sarcastic; severe; scathing. -- Mor*da"cious*ly, adv.

Biting; caustic; sarcastic; keen; severe.

Of a sour temper; sullen and austere; ill-humored; severe. "A morose and affected taciturnity." I. Watts.

Homesickness; esp., a severe and sometimes fatal form of melancholia, due to homesickness.

ord thing); -- opposed to Ant: anything and Ant: something. Yet had his aspect nothing of severe. Dryden.

Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. Macaulay.