Associations to the word «Austerity»

Wiktionary

AUSTERITY, noun. Severity of manners or life; extreme rigor or strictness; harsh discipline.
AUSTERITY, noun. Freedom from adornment; plainness; severe simplicity.
AUSTERITY, noun. (economics) A policy of deficit-cutting, which by definition requires lower spending, higher taxes, or both.
AUSTERITY, noun. (obsolete) Sourness and harshness to the taste.

Dictionary definition

AUSTERITY, noun. The trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures).

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats