dour

Synonyms for dour

adj gloomy, grim

mid-14c., "severe," from Scottish and northern England dialect, probably from Latin durus "hard" (see endure); sense of "gloomy, sullen" is late 15c.

Grim, dour, silent, it waited for the beginning of hostilities.

He's jist as dour as ever, and as far as man could weel be frae them he cam o'!

When they were so poor and the future so dour, how could she keep from earning a little money?

A most curious, dour, and moody man, with a mind roving from key to key.

Nobody was surprised, since this dour officer had been in trouble before.

No one would have thought that dour man capable of such gentleness.

The tea mollified the dour man, but there was one more rumbling.

Light-hearted Annie had borne to her dour partner two children who had died.

He greeted Mathews with a solicitude that surprised the dour Scotchman.

Before leaving the church, in response to the call, Dour ar bis!