| Main Entry: | merciless |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | mean, heartless |
Synonyms: |
barbarous, callous, compassionless, cruel, cutthroat, dog-eat-dog, fierce, gratuitous, grim, hard, hardhearted, harsh, hatchet job, having a killer instinct, implacable, inexorable, inhumane, iron-fisted, mean machine, mortal, pitiless, relentless, ruthless, severe, unappeasable, uncalled-for, unfeeling, unflinching, unforgiving, unmerciful, unpitying, unrelenting, unsparing, unsympathetic, unyielding, wanton |
Antonyms: |
giving, kind, merciful, nice, sparing, sympathetic |
| Main Entry: | strict |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | authoritarian |
Synonyms: |
austere, dead set, disciplinary, dour, draconian*, exacting, firm, forbidding, grim, hard, hard-boiled, harsh, iron-fisted, no-nonsense, oppressive, picky, prudish, punctilious, puritanical, rigid, rigorous, scrupulous, set, severe, square, stern, stickling, straight, strait-laced, stringent, stuffy, tough, unpermissive, unsparing, uptight* |
| Notes: | stringent often means simply 'strict, strictly regulated' and also 'tight or constricted' and emphasizes the narrowness of what is permitted, while strict emphasizes the sternness with which something is enforced |
Antonyms: |
amenable, easy-going, flexible, lenient, tolerant, tractable, yielding |
| Main Entry: | stringent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | rigid, tight |
Synonyms: |
acrimonious, binding, brick-wall, by the book, by the numbers, compelling, confining, convincing, dead set on, demanding, draconian, drawing, dyed-in-the-wool, exacting, forceful, hard, hard-nosed, harsh, inflexible, iron-fisted, ironclad, picky, poignant, powerful, rigorous, rough, set, severe, stiff, strict, tough, unpermissive, valid |
Antonyms: |
flexible, inexact, tolerant |
| Main Entry: | unrelenting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | merciless |
Synonyms: |
bound, bound and determined, brick-wall, ceaseless, constant, continual, continuous, cruel, dead set on, endless, grim, hanging tough, hard-headed, implacable, incessant, inexorable, intransigent, iron-fisted, mortal, perpetual, persistent, pitiless, relentless, remorseless, rigid, ruthless, set, steady, stern, stiff, stiff-necked, tenacious, tough, unabated, unbending, unbroken, unflinching, unremitting, unsparing, unwavering, unyielding |
Antonyms: |
compassionate, flexible, merciful, relenting, sympathetic |