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dour

[ door, douuhr, dou-er ]
/ dʊər, daʊər, ˈdaʊ ər /
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See synonyms for: dour / dourness on Thesaurus.com
adjective
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.
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Origin of dour

1325–75; Middle English, from Latin dūrus dure1

synonym study for dour

1. See glum.

OTHER WORDS FROM dour

dourly, adverbdourness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to dour

bleak, glum, harsh, morose, sullen, surly, crabbed, dismal, dreary, forbidding, hard, saturnine, severe, sour, stringent, sulky, ugly, unfriendly

How to use dour in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for dour

dour
/ (dʊə, ˈdaʊə) /
adjective
sullen
hard or obstinate

Derived forms of dour

dourly, adverbdourness, noun

Word Origin for dour

C14: probably from Latin dūrus hard
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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