DOUR • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Dour

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/dˈaʊər/ /daʊr/ Listen

Dour

adjective

Stubbornly unyielding. Synonyms: dogged, persistent, pertinacious, tenacious, unyielding. "Dour determination" , "The most vocal and pertinacious of all the critics" , "A mind not gifted to discover truth but tenacious to hold it" , "Men tenacious of opinion"

Harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance. Synonyms: forbidding, grim. "A forbidding scowl" , "A grim man loving duty more than humanity" , "Undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw"

Showing a brooding ill humor. Synonyms: dark, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen. "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" , "A sour temper" , "A sullen crowd"

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"Dour" Quotes from Famous Books

... you, Blossom you stalk by stalk, Till my fire of creation bore you Shrivelling down in the final dour Anguish—then ...

— Amores - Poems • D. H. Lawrence

... canna weel be twa i' this warl' 'at ken ane anither better nor you an' me. We hae been bairns thegither; we hae been to the schuil thegither; we hae had the same maister; we hae come throu dour times thegither—I doobt we hae been hungry thegither, though ye saidna a word; we hae warstlet wi' poverty, an' maybe wi' unbelief; we loe the same fowk best; an' abune a' we set the wull o' God. It ...

— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... moment her courage deserted her, and she wrung her hands and began to sob under her breath; but this would not do! Her nerves knew the resolute shake of the shoulders, and shrank into obedience. She set her lips firmly, and there crept into her face a certain "dour" look that may have come from her Scottish ancestors. "If a thing has to be done, why, it must be done!" she said to herself. "Anyhow, there will be solid ground at the ...

— Three Margarets • Laura E. Richards

... intimately; they were bound together by those sympathies and ties, which a persecuted and suffering class always feel, independent of Christian affection. Hence in part we account for the holy and exemplary candour [?an dour] of their attachments to their religion and to each other. But even in these circumstances, and under these especial intimacies, or rather, perhaps, on account of them, the apostles found it necessary to admonish them against the abuse ...

— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... the remarkably good-looking young lady whom the said master was serving with exemplary diligence to fear dire consequences to himself if he became the direct cause of a broken idyl. The position was even worse if he fell back on an artistic lie. The Earl was a dour person where servants were concerned, and Salome did not demand John the Baptist's head on a salver with greater gusto than the autocrat of Fairholme would insist on Dale's dismissal when he discovered the facts. Talk of the horned dilemma—here ...

— Cynthia's Chauffeur • Louis Tracy

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