(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.
Standoffish
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) He told the BBC that, "perhaps naively", he had expected the referendum campaign not to feature politicians so prominently, and he and Cameron could take a more "standoffish" stance.
(2) We were aware of his reputation for being unfiltered and upfront , and that he just says what he's thinking; he can be a bit standoffish, we were told.
(3) We were in a rehearsal room in midtown Manhattan – he walked in and was quite standoffish, quite short, quite like you would expect him.
(4) Yes, the liberals and Labour have all been very standoffish!
(5) Nor is this the only incident where the reader is obliged to take on Mrs Bennet's restricted views; compare the verdict on Darcy's standoffishness at his first public appearance: "His character was decided.
(6) The last Labour government and the present coalition had been "too standoffish as it applies to Scotland", Alexander said.
(7) Char Brown's husband, David, called Page "very standoffish" and "not real friendly".
(8) Honestly, I’m not interested in what’s happening in Russia.” * * * Putin cultivates an enigmatic, standoffish persona, but Kadyrov has no time for such subtlety.
(9) In the historic university town of Kairouan, there was a mosque just a few paces from the apartment he shared with four standoffish friends, but they almost never prayed there.
(10) Whether you love her music and persona or wish she’d vanish off the face of the earth, it’s rare to see a mainstream pop star who functions as both a standoffish auteur and a roaring commercial success – and seems to have a hand in just about every aspect of her creative output.