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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Asperity \As*per"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Asperities}. [L. asperitas, fr. asper rough: cf. F. asp['e]rit['e].]
1. Roughness of surface; unevenness; -- opposed to {smoothness}. ''The asperities of dry bodies.'' --Boyle.
2. Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity.
3. Roughness to the taste; sourness; tartness.
4. Moral roughness; roughness of manner; severity; crabbedness; harshness; -- opposed to {mildness}. ''Asperity of character.'' --Landor.
It is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received. --Johnson.
5. Sharpness; disagreeableness; difficulty.
The acclivities and asperities of duty. --Barrow.
Syn: Acrimony; moroseness; crabbedness; harshness; sourness; tartness. See {Acrimony}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
asperity
noun
1: something hard to endure; "the asperity of northern winters" [syn: {grimness}, {hardship}, {rigor}, {rigour}, {severity}, {rigorousness}]
2: harshness of manner [syn: {sharpness}] [ant: {dullness}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
85 Moby Thesaurus words for "asperity": acerbity, acid, acidity, acidness, acidulousness, acridity, acrimony, anger, animosity, astringency, austerity, bad humor, bad temper, bile, biliousness, bitingness, bitter resentment, bitterness, bitterness of spirit, bumpiness, causticity, causticness, choler, choppiness, corrosiveness, cragginess, cuttingness, discontent, edge, gall, gnashing of teeth, granulation, grimness, hard feelings, hardness, hardship, harshness, heartburning, hispidity, ill humor, ill nature, ill temper, incisiveness, inclemency, inequality, irregularity, irritability, jaggedness, joltiness, keenness, mordacity, mordancy, nonuniformity, piercingness, piquancy, poignancy, pungency, raggedness, rancor, rankling, rigor, rough air, roughness, ruggedness, rugosity, scraggliness, severity, sharpness, slow burn, snappishness, soreness, sourness, spleen, stabbingness, stringency, tartness, tooth, trenchancy, turbulence, unevenness, unsmoothness, ununiformity, vicissitude, virulence, waspishness
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