Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by sternness or harshness; forbidding: a dour, self-sacrificing life.
- adj. Silently ill-humored; gloomy: the proverbially dour New England Puritan.
- adj. Sternly obstinate; unyielding: a dour determination.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Hard; inflexible; obstinate; bold; hardy.
Wiktionary
- adj. Stern, harsh and forbidding.
- adj. Unyielding and obstinate.
- adj. Expressing gloom or melancholy; sullenly unhappy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Scot. Hard; inflexible; obstinate; sour in aspect; hardy; bold.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. showing a brooding ill humor
- adj. harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
- adj. stubbornly unyielding
Etymologies
- From Latin dūrus ("hard, stern"), or possibly from Middle Irish dúr. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, possibly from Middle Irish dúr, probably from Latin dūrus, hard; see deru- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In previous years, Arsenal were known as a dour, if effective, outfit, masters at eking out a 1-0 victory.”
The Guardian: Arsène Wenger: the blinkered visionary | Observer profile
“The gray people, as a friend of mine called the dour-looking youths of the downtown arts crowd, stuffed into the room on old folding chairs and splintering benches, everyone stepping carefully amid broken floorboards and keeping one wary eye on the wires and pipes hanging from the ceiling.”
“His sober replacement, Gordon Brown -- a man whose name rarely appears in print without the adjective "dour" -- is already more popular.”
“Don't just pull on your beer-stained jeans and set your scruffy mug on "dour" - show some pizzazz, some pep.”
“This straight-faced stand-up comedian became nationally known as the dour, intellectual cop Detective Sergeant Dietrich on Barney Miller, and went on to a long career as a popular supporting comedy player, most recently seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
The Huffington Post: Tallulah Morehead: Dead Folks 2010: Everyone's Pushing Up Roses
“Pianist Alexander Melnikov's brilliant new recording should convince any holdouts that Shostakovich's massive 150-minute set is far from what has occasionally been called dour and academic.”
“Incidentally, her character has been described as dour and humourless in the first season of 'Space: 1999', but she became more playful in the second season.”
“Sorry to be dour, which is not my wont, but we are smack in the last quarter of what Murdoch's Wall Street Journal called "a wild year so far," and let me warn you to be happy with what you have -- just like I am.”
“NEW YORK - Wendy's new CEO on Monday called the dour results of the past few years "self-inflicted wounds" and vowed to do better, laying...”
“Tantawi must go on trial for this," said another man, referring to the dour army commander who stepped in last year to run Egypt when Mubarak was forced out.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dour’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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May 2013
ungulate, kvetch, scintilla, clandestine, vis-a-vis, pygmy, dour, sodomite, erythematous, purveyor, blandishment, tontine and 1 more...
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March 2012
panache, evanescent, erogenous, vestibule, malfeasance, lacuna, blithering, incubate, breech, tabernacle, pearly, upholstery and 79 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 102 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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stubborn
contumacious-resisting authority
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dour.
jorge999 don't let the dour
hit you in the ass Nov 6, 2009
seanahan I tend to think of WordNet 5 and 6 when this word comes up. Sep 23, 2008
yarb It doesn't mean absence of intelligence. Wordnet definitions 3, 5 and 6 are about right. Sep 22, 2008
amun.x dour means absence of intellegence.Or absence of personality. Sep 22, 2008