dour

/'duə/
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dour

A dour expression settled on the old man's face as he watched the rain.

Definition
  1. Adjective:
    • Severe, stern, or gloomy in appearance or mood: Describes a person, expression, or manner that is unfriendly, unsmiling, and often forbidding.
    • Stubbornly unyielding or tenacious: Describes a determined, persistent, and inflexible attitude or quality.
Usage
  • The word "dour" is used to describe a person's facial expression, demeanor, or character. It often implies a lack of cheerfulness, a stern resolve, or an uninviting harshness.
  • It can also describe an attitude or persistence that is grimly determined and unrelenting.
Examples

  • Describing appearance or mood:

    • The old sailor had a dour face, etched with lines from years of hardship.
    • She gave him a dour look that silenced his laughter immediately.
    • The landscape was dour and unwelcoming under the grey winter sky.

  • Describing stubborn determination:

    • Despite numerous setbacks, she continued her work with dour persistence.
    • His dour refusal to compromise eventually led to a stalemate in the negotiations.
Advanced Usage
  • "dour determination": A phrase emphasizing a grim, relentless, and unyielding form of resolve.
    • They fought with dour determination to defend their homeland.
Variants and Related Words

  • Dourly (adverb): In a stern, gloomy, or stubbornly determined manner.

    • He nodded dourly, accepting the difficult task without complaint.

  • Dourness (noun): The quality or state of being dour.

    • The dourness of his expression made it hard to approach him.
Synonyms
  • Stern: Very serious and strict, often in a disapproving way.
  • Grim: Forbidding or uninviting in appearance; very serious or gloomy.
  • Morose: Sullen and ill-tempered.
  • Saturnine: Slow and gloomy; having a sardonic aspect.
  • Tenacious: Tending to keep a firm hold of something; persistent.
  • Dogged: Having or showing tenacity and grim persistence.
Antonyms
  • Cheerful: Noticeably happy and optimistic.
  • Amiable: Having or displaying a friendly and pleasant manner.
  • Flexible: Ready and able to change so as to adapt to different circumstances.
  • Yielding: Giving way under pressure; not stiff or rigid.
dour

A dour expression settled on the old man's face as he watched the rain.

Adjective
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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

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