dour

• POS: Adjective

OXFORD DICTIONARY

dour, adj. severe, stern, or sullenly obstinate in manner or appearance.

Derivative

dourly adv. dourness n.

Etymology

ME (orig. Sc.), prob. f. Gael. d{uacute}r dull, obstinate, perh. f. L durus hard

THESAURUS

dour

Spartan, Spartanic, adamant, adamantine, astringent, austere, authoritarian, beetle-browed, black, black-browed, bleak, cast-iron, cheerless, cold, crabbed, dark, dejected, demanding, dismal, dreary, dumpish, exacting, exigent, firm, flinty, forbidding, frowning, fundamentalist, gloomy, glowering, glum, grim, grum, hard, hard-core, hard-nosed, hardy, harsh, hidebound, immovable, immutable, implacable, impliable, inclement, inelastic, inexorable, inflexible, intransigent, iron, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, irreconcilable, lowering, melancholy, meticulous, moodish, moody, mopey, moping, mopish, morose, mumpish, muscle-bound, obdurate, obstinate, orthodox, procrustean, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, relentless, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, rock-ribbed, rockbound, rough, rugged, saturnine, scowling, severe, sour, steely, stern, stiff, straightlaced, straitlaced, strict, stringent, stubborn, sulky, sullen, surly, tough, ugly, unaffected, unalterable, unbending, unchangeable, uncompromising, unfriendly, ungentle, ungiving, unmoved, unrelenting, unsparing, unyielding

ROGET THESAURUS

dour

Severity

N severity, strictness, harshness, rigor, stringency, austerity, inclemency, arrogance, precisianism, arbitrary power, absolutism, despotism, dictatorship, autocracy, tyranny, domineering, oppression, assumption, usurpation, inquisition, reign of terror, martial law, iron heel, iron rule, iron hand, iron sway, tight grasp, brute force, brute strength, coercion, strong hand, tight hand, hard lines, hard measure, tender mercies, sharp practice, pipe-clay, officialism, tyrant, disciplinarian, precisian, martinet, stickler, bashaw, despot, hard master, Draco, oppressor, inquisitor, extortioner, harpy, vulture, accipitres, birds of prey, raptorials, raptors, severe, strict, hard, harsh, dour, rigid, stiff, stern, rigorous, uncompromising, exacting, exigent, exigeant, inexorable, inflexible, obdurate, austere, hard-headed, hard-nosed, hard-shell, relentless, Spartan, Draconian, stringent, strait-laced, searching, unsparing, iron-handed, peremptory, absolute, positive, arbitrary, imperative, coercive, tyrannical, extortionate, grinding, withering, oppressive, inquisitorial, inclement, cruel, haughty, arrogant, precisian, severely, with a high hand, with a strong hand, with a tight hand, with a heavy hand, at the point of the sword, at the point of the bayonet, Delirant reges plectuntur Achivi, manu forti, ogni debole ha sempre il suo tiranno.