lour
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /laʊə/, /ˈlaʊ.ə/
  • (GA) IPA: /laʊɚ/, /laʊɹ/, /ˈlaʊ.ɚ/
Verb

lour (lours, present participle louring; past and past participle loured)

  1. (intransitive) To frown#Verb|frown; to look#Verb|look sullen.
    Synonyms: glower, scowl
    • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Homer’s Ilias”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415 ↗, book I, page 215 ↗:
      [...] Juno#English|Juno took her place: / But ſullen Diſcontent ſat lowring on her Face.
    • 1814, [Lord Byron], “Lara, a Tale”, in Lara, a Tale. Jacqueline, a Tale, London: Printed for J[ohn] Murray, […], [b]y T[homas] Davison, […], OCLC 1015471245 ↗, canto I, stanza XV, pages 20–21 ↗:
      And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech, / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours, / Nor less he smiles, nor more his forehead lours / Than these were wont; [...]
  2. (intransitive, figuratively) To be dark, gloomy, and threatening#Adjective|threatening, as cloud#Noun|clouds; of the sky: to be cover#Verb|covered with dark and threatening clouds; to show#Verb|show threatening sign#Noun|signs of approach, as a tempest.
    • c. 1593, [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, OCLC 55191490 ↗, [Act I, scene i] ↗:
      Now is the winter of our diſcontent, / Made glorious ſummer by this ſonne of Yorke: / And all the cloudes that lowrd vpon our houſe, / In the deepe boſome of the Ocean buried.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV ↗”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗, lines 870–874:
      And with them comes a third of Regal port, / But faded ſplendor wan; who by his gate / And fierce demeanour ſeems the Prince of Hell, / Not likely to part hence without conteſt; / Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours.
    • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Printed [by Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, OCLC 830979744 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=emu.010001278703;view=1up;seq=133 page 125]:
      The sun might shine, or the clouds might lour; but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.
    • 1922 October, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] IX”, in Last Poems, London: Grant Richards Ltd., OCLC 31583861 ↗, stanza 6, lines 21–22, page 25 ↗:
      If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours / To-morrow it will hie on far behests; [...]
Noun

lour (plural lours)

  1. A frown#Noun|frown, a scowl#Noun|scowl; an angry or sullen look#Noun|look.
  2. (figuratively) Of the sky, the weather#Noun|weather, etc.: a dark, gloomy, and threatening#Adjective|threatening appearance.
    Synonyms: gloom, gloominess



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