Jump To:

• stour
  stour

  noun
• Stour
  Stour

  noun

  a river in S England, in Kent, rising in the Weald and flowing N to the North Sea: separates the Isle of Thanet from the mainland

stour

American  

[stoor] / stʊər /

noun

1. British Dialect.

   1. tumult; confusion.

   2. a storm.

2. British Dialect. blowing dust or a deposit of dust.

3. Archaic. armed combat; battle.

4. British Dialect. a time of tumult.

---

Stour ¹ British  

/ staʊə /

noun

1. Also called: Great Stour.  a river in S England, in Kent, rising in the Weald and flowing N to the North Sea: separates the Isle of Thanet from the mainland

2. any of several smaller rivers in England

---

stour ² British  

/ staʊə, stuːr /

noun

1. turmoil or conflict

2. dust; a cloud of dust

---

Etymology

Origin of stour

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French estour battle < Germanic; akin to storm

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stour Stour

Fair lady, these two, who will ere long be knights, are my squires-of-arms, who love me wholly and are good men and true, and perilous in the stour to them that love me not.

From The Sundering Flood by Morris, May

Meliant of the Waste Manor searcheth for Lancelot in the midst of the stour until he findeth him, and runneth upon him right sturdily and pierceth his shield with his spear.

From The High History of the Holy Graal by Evans, Sebastian

Inneraora in the stour in her reputation as well as in her tenements.

From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Munro, Neil

Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower, Thou'st met me in an evil hour; For I must crush amongst the stour Thy slender stem.

From The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare by Ellacombe, Henry Nicholson

Now up and ride, Laird Eglinton, That was sae stout in stour, That when it rainit cats and dogs, Aye jousted through the shower.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

Pupils from Dedham Church of England Primary School in Essex asked a local climate action charity to help them investigate pollution in a stretch of the River Stour popular with swimmers, paddleboarders and tourists.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

During his career he produced many paintings of the Suffolk countryside and around the River Stour, which helped give the area the name, Constable Country.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

It will be spent on projects on the River Stour, with Kent the home to England's largest population of wild beavers, and ancient woodland at the Blean, near Canterbury.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

During sentencing at Warwick Crown Court on Monday, Spencer, from Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire, was told he would serve his two years in a youth offenders institution.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2025

Eight years later, in 1817, he painted "Flatford Mill on the Stour," No. 1273 in the National Gallery, which forms one of our illustrations.

From Constable by Hind, C. Lewis (Charles Lewis)