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• n  the quality (as of scenery) being grim and gloomy and forbidding
  the sternness of his surroundings made him uncomfortable
• n  uncompromising resolution

• With her moraleven moralisticstrictness, Aquino can at times treat even her Cabinet colleagues with the kind of affectionate sternness she lavishes on her children.
• Chief Justice William Howard Taft, now 70, rotund, genial, with an earthquake chuckle and an eye that twinkles even in sternness.
• He told him with characteristic sternness to throw off his invalidism by force of will.

• strictness

News & Articles

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• Male Gaze: Terence Stamp Smoldering With Jean Shrimpton
  The latest installment in our series of vintage contact sheets, featuring never-before-published images from photography archives. Today, Terence Stamp turned 75 years old. While the British actor now sports a wispy white mane that's reminiscent of cotton candy, there remains a sternness to his face that was evident even in ... More »        
  July 22, 2013 - New York Magazine

Quotes

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• Wayne Ford in Philadelphia Inquirer
  You've got to remember how the '70s were,Ford said. "Race relations were a little bit different than they are now. Jim was the first white man I ever met that intimidated me when I first saw him. His hulklike features and his sternness . ....
• Mark Jay Mirsky in Ha'aretz
  When I returned to his door a week later,Mirsky writes in his introduction to the Nadav volume, "he met me and said with uncharacteristic sternness, 'You have a duty to perform. You must bring these books into English.'"
• Rolando Blackman in Kansas City Star
  His (Hartman's) sternness, fierce competitive nature, is what I embody today,Blackman, who turns 48 on Feb. 26, said earlier this week.