dour
sullen; gloomy: The captain's dour look depressed us all.
severe; stern: His dour criticism made us regret having undertaken the job.
Scot. (of land) barren; rocky, infertile, or otherwise difficult or impossible to cultivate.
Origin of dour
1synonym study For dour
Other words for dour
Other words from dour
- dourly, adverb
- dourness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dour in a sentence
Republicans are already dourly pointing out that Staten Island is the only area of the city that routinely votes for the GOP.
The conference room on the third floor of the New York Helmsley hotel is rather dourly decorated in a palette of brown and beige.
Camp Fashion Design Draws Budding Designers To New York | Robin Givhan | July 13, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTFats watched him dourly, then swung on his heel, just as a shrill, strangled cry went up from someone in the crowd.
Police Your Planet | Lester del ReyMacGregor looked at him dourly, disgust and anger on his big red face.
The Snow-Burner | Henry OyenM'Iver took on a set stern jaw, and looked his chief very dourly in the face.
John Splendid | Neil Munro
Foe got up, smiling dourly, knocked out his pipe, and chose a fresh one from the mantelpiece.
Foe-Farrell | Arthur Thomas Quiller-CouchThe others came in, Howell dourly and Graves wiping his moustache.
The Machine That Saved The World | William Fitzgerald Jenkins
British Dictionary definitions for dour
/ (dʊə, ˈdaʊə) /
sullen
hard or obstinate
Origin of dour
1Derived forms of dour
- dourly, adverb
- dourness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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