1. Severe or gloomy, and unfriendly and unresponsive toward others: Marge had a dour expression on her face when she heard about the higher prices at the store.
2. Grimly and stubbornly determined: The football player was in a dour mood when he tried to run for the goal with the football.
3. Marked by sternness or harshness; a forbidding nature: The people had dour feelings when they returned to see the results of the flooding of their homes.

The politician had a dour personality when he heard about the comments made about him by his opponent.

4. Etymology: "severe", from Scottish and northern England dialect, considered to be from Latin durus "hard"; the sense of "gloomy" is from about 1470.

The pronunciation of dour traditionally rhymes with "tour"; as with DOER. The variant pronunciation that rhymes with "sour" (DOUR) is also considered to be widely used and so it is also considered an acceptable pronunciation by some authorities.

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