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dour

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
dour  (dr, dour)
adj. dour·er, dour·est
1. Marked by sternness or harshness; forbidding: a dour, self-sacrificing life.
2. Silently ill-humored; gloomy: the proverbially dour New England Puritan.
3. Sternly obstinate; unyielding: a dour determination.

[Middle English, possibly from Middle Irish dúr, probably from Latin drus, hard; see deru- in Indo-European roots.]

dourly adv.
dourness n.
Usage Note: The word dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour. The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour is, however, widely used and must be considered acceptable. In a recent survey, 65 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the traditional pronunciation, and 33 percent preferred the variant.

dour [doo-er, rhymes with tower]
Adjective
sullen and unfriendly [probably from Latin durus hard]
dourness n
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.dourdour - stubbornly unyielding; "dogged persistence"; "dour determination"; "the most vocal and pertinacious of all the critics"; "a mind not gifted to discover truth but tenacious to hold it"- T.S.Eliot; "men tenacious of opinion"
obstinate, stubborn, unregenerate - tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield
2.dour - harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance; "a dour, self-sacrificing life"; "a forbidding scowl"; "a grim man loving duty more than humanity"; "undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw"- J.M.Barrie
unpleasant - disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings ; "an unpleasant personality"; "unpleasant repercussions"; "unpleasant odors"
3.dour - showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd"
ill-natured - having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

dour
Translations
French dour [duəʳ] adjaustère
German dour [duəʳ] adjmürrisch, verdrießlich
Italian dour [duəʳ] adjarcigno/a

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Past a dour plantation of gnarled spruces and a maple-fringed, sun-warm valley they found the "something" Gilbert was looking for.
But even watched pots will boil in the fulness of time, and finally Christmas day came, gray and dour and frost-bitten without, but full of revelry and rose-red mirth within.
The harbor was lying black and sullen under a dour November sky; the wet, dead leaves clung drenched and sodden to the window sills; but the little house was gay with firelight and spring-like with Anne's ferns and geraniums.
 
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