What's the difference between dour and obdurate?

Dour


Definition:

  • (a.) Hard; inflexible; obstinate; sour in aspect; hardy; bold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Reports from the scenes of Muslim Brotherhood and Freedom and Justice Party rallies conveyed a dour mood in Cairo, while active clashes were reported in both coastal cities and upper Egypt.
  • (2) There’s hard work and dour activities and that’s what I’m going to be doing.” Corbyn and his deputy, Tom Watson , are expected to make regular – and more public – visits to Scotland to help Scottish Labour avoid a further rout at next May’s Holyrood elections; the latest opinion polls suggest the SNP is on course to win a second successive overall majority with its approval ratings at more than 50%.
  • (3) However, as we watch Blade Runner , Deckard doesn’t feel like a replicant; he is dour and unengaged, but lacks his victims’ detached innocence, their staccato puzzlement at their own untrained feelings.
  • (4) Reith, “his dour handsome face scarred like that of a villain in a melodrama”, was “a strange shepherd for such a mixed, bohemian flock … he had under his aegis a bevy of ex-soldiers, ex-actors, ex-adventurers which … even a Dartmoor prison governor might have had difficulty in controlling”.
  • (5) The dour Zenawi could not resist a swipe at western pundits who had once written off Africa.
  • (6) A spectacular fall from grace on the pitch – from first to seventh, playing dour football that is anathema to fans who feasted on success throughout the Ferguson era – will also lead to renewed scrutiny of the club's controversial US owners, the Glazer family , away from it.
  • (7) The seafront was grey and almost deserted; outside the dour concrete venue, there was a single delegate having a blustery cigarette.
  • (8) But it was in westerns that Peck's dour integrity showed itself best: unshaven and tough in Yellow Sky (1948); a dude learning to adapt to the west in The Big Country (1958); and obsessively after the men who raped and killed his wife in The Bravados (1958).
  • (9) On Tuesday, the bunkhouse breakfast room felt like a hunting lodge, with wives and girlfriends serving meals while working-class men with beards, flannel shirts and dour expressions milled about.
  • (10) Milosevic himself, until then a dour and orthodox communist, appeared to realise his gift for rhetoric and the power of nationalism.
  • (11) Saki (Hector Hugh Munro, 1870-1916) was raised by his strict, dour aunts and grandmother, and was gay but closeted all his life – for good reason, since homosexual acts between men were still illegal.
  • (12) Fun is fun, and please don't try and stop people having fun, things are dour enough as it is."
  • (13) Because there is no ‘message’ – there’s just Jeremy!” Membership Event: Guardian Live | The future of Labour: meet the next leader By the end of the night, even the dour stewards were applauding.
  • (14) This late action made the preceding dour fare seem all the more disappointing.
  • (15) We were told he would be the dour, humourless lefty; and again he has been a challenge to expectations.
  • (16) We talk some more about Mad Men , about: "The swirl and sound and fury of it… For a show that is as dour and moody and pendulous as ours, we have fun."
  • (17) George averaged only 14.5 points and six rebounds in the first two games of the series and started slowly against on Friday before gathering pace in the dour encounter.
  • (18) The two TV presenters broadcasting from the crowd – she in a gold-spangled minidress and rigid curls, him dour in black tie – shot baleful looks in his direction as he carried on honking.
  • (19) Murray is a bit dour true to his Scottish nature but he is an excellent player.
  • (20) Jeremy Corbyn conceded that it would not be easy to revive Labour’s position in Scotland but promised “hard work and dour activities” as he made his first visit to the nation since his election as party leader.

Obdurate


Definition:

  • (a.) Hardened in feelings, esp. against moral or mollifying influences; unyielding; hard-hearted; stubbornly wicked.
  • (a.) Hard; harsh; rugged; rough; intractable.
  • (v. t.) To harden.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The system is not an obdurate one-man rule, but a balancing of power groups, including the military, government and internal security, all have different interests and policies.
  • (2) Both the Coalition and Labor are obdurately stuck with barbaric offshore detention policies, as though sensible, humane and politically viable alternatives are beyond them.
  • (3) For their part, the Israeli left accused Peres of acting as a figleaf for an obdurate Likud administration.
  • (4) Report on the temporary substitution of pharynx and upper oesophagus with synthetic skin substitute in case of incurable obdurating neck carcinoma.
  • (5) His team-mates were obdurate opponents in every respect.
  • (6) The fact that it was Johnson rather than Crow who had been obdurate was highlighted by the fact that TfL had all along planned to retain ticket-selling facilities at several busy stations, but, prompted by Johnson, had publicly suggested that they would all be closed.
  • (7) For the first time there were obvious signs of tension and, suddenly, this tough, obdurate West Bromwich side showed an attacking intent that simply had not been there earlier in the match.
  • (8) In the face of obdurate unreason, the president of hyper-reasonableness was forced to surrender.
  • (9) Underpinning the witty remarks and the textbook flippancy ("call me early, Goering dear, for I'm to be Queen of the May" was apparently Nancy's riposte to news of Diana and Unity's German adventures) though, was an absolute and obdurate self-belief; a self-possessed seriousness only partly disguised by sisterly teasing.
  • (10) Max from Earlsfield muses: "Admittedly terrible from Fab, a shame after 47 minutes of obdurate defence.
  • (11) This was a slog, a result ground out against ruggedly obdurate opposition , but Chelsea may end up gaining more satisfaction from prevailing in those awkward circumstances than from some of the more comfortable strolls they have enjoyed over a nine-match winning streak.
  • (12) Read more It was the third minute of stoppage time, and the cruellest of circumstances for this tough, obdurate Burnley side, when Arsenal’s possession finally paid off and the seemingly endless 20th-anniversary commemorations for Arsène Wenger were given a shot of euphoria that had not seemed like coming.
  • (13) Ireland were obdurate opponents but that does not fully explain the lack of quality that held back England once Frank Lampard had scored the 29th goal of his international career, 10 minutes after Shane Long's expertly taken header had given Giovanni Trapattoni's side an early lead.
  • (14) Russia's determination to defend wider spheres of traditional influence in the non-aligned and developing world can be seen in its obdurate refusal to penalise Syria, in the face of almost universal outrage over the crackdown there; and in its de facto defence of Iran's nuclear programme.
  • (15) It had needed some obdurate defending to keep the score down before Alves exchanged passes with the substitute Neymar and cut in from the right to slip his shot through Hart's legs.
  • (16) Republicans have been both obdurate and obtuse in Congress, where approval ratings have rarely scraped 20%.
  • (17) He is assertive (he insists on his photographer and dictates the terms of the interview), obdurate and, at times, wilfully contrary.
  • (18) We had an obdurate Labor party, a feckless Senate and a very difficult media culture,” Abbott said.
  • (19) In the years since those facts first became known, the story of the Holocaust has been told and retold, yet it still remains obdurately difficult to tell.
  • (20) Giles also remained obdurate and continued to refuse to resign even though he had only four supporters as against the conspirators’ nine.