Obs. [a. OF. aspre (mod. âpre):—L. asper rough, harsh.]
1. Rough, rugged.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), I. xxxiii. 28 a/1. The wayes were soo aspre … that … they that shoed with gode and stronge shoes were cutte and broken.
1538. Starkey, England, 134. The passage … through rough and asper montaynys.
1681. trans. Willis’ Rem. Med. Wks. Asper artery, the wind-pipe.
2. Harsh to the senses, in sound or taste.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 173. All Base Notes, or very Treble Notes, give an Asper sound.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horseman, 174. The medicines … when once they begin to grow stale, become sharp and asper.
3. Harsh to the feelings; bitter, cruel, severe.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 798. And in hire aspre pleynte, thus she seyde.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 122/2. Thise aspre tormentes and cruell doubte.
1578. Oliver of Castille, vi. (T.). What dure and aspre strokes I have seen them give.
4. Of persons: Harsh, severe, stern.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. i. 32. Þou … makest fortune wroþe and aspere by þin inpacience.
1565. Calfhill, Answ. Treat. Cross (1846), 51. I am more aspre in my writing than … modesty requireth.
1630. Westcote, Devon., 44. His melancholie … asper nature, by which he centureth other men.
5. Hardy, warlike; mettled, fierce, savage.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 23. The aspre folke of Cithe.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 6 b. He fought none but … the most aspre.
1503. Shepherd’s Kal. (1656), xlii. Naturally a man is … avaricious as a dog, and aspre as the Hart.
