Dictionary.com

dour

[ door, douuhr, dou-er ]
/ dʊər, daʊər, ˈdaʊ ər /
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.

QUIZZES

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In our third teacher-created PSAT practice test there are new and unique vocabulary terms you may have never heard of! Can you guess what they mean?
Question 1 of 10
seclusion
a false belief or opinion.
the matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid.
the state of being isolated, kept apart, or withdrawn into solitude.
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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. 2021

Words related to dour

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

Example sentences from the Web for dour

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