STERN

adj. 1 austere, severe, strict, stringent, demanding, critical, rigid, rigorous, flinty, steely, authoritarian, uncompromising, hard, tough, inflexible, firm, immovable, unmoved, unrelenting, unremitting, steadfast, resolute, determined, unyielding, adamant, adamantine, obdurate, hard-hearted, stony, stony-hearted, unsparing, unforgiving, unsympathetic, harsh Discipline in the French Foreign Legion is said to be quite stern 2 serious, frowning, grim, forbidding, grave, gloomy, dour, sombre, saturnine, lugubrious, gruff, taciturn, crabby, crabbed, crusty, churlish, sour Beneath that terribly stern exterior he really is a pussy-cat