Word: dourness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...outspoken leader of the opposition in Congress. His fluent oratory and eccentric flair (he always dresses in a striking black suit, tie and hat, lunches at the Union Club but orders a favorite peasant dish of highly spiced rice and beans) gave him a needed advantage over Orlich, a dour, earnest candidate...
...stolid, dour lawyer, Adams reversed tradition by beginning as a moderate and moving to the left. On coming home from Oxford in 1925, he won his first seat in the legislature through the influence of a planter. But he was soon attacking the "dictatorship" of the landowners, and when Depression-struck sugar workers rioted in 1937, Adams was blamed by the governor for inciting the violence...
...decisive words came from the government's official spokesman, dour, waxen-faced Lord Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor. "The government do not think that the general sense of the community is with the committee in its recommendation, and therefore they think the problem requires further study." In other words, unless public opinion changed, the government was going to keep homosexuality on the criminal list...
...Johnson subcommittee got a dour estimate of U.S. strength from its first witness. In four hours of testimony, shaggy-browed, often emotional Dr. Edward Teller (TIME, Nov. 18) ran off a grim morning line on U.S. chances in the race for survival. The University of California physicist estimated that Russia is closing the gap in nuclear weapons, is about equal to the U.S. in aircraft and radar development, is ahead in ballistic missiles. Said Teller: "I would not say that the Russians caught up with us because they stole our secrets. They caught up with us because they worked harder...
...Gordonstoun, Philip reveled in a rigorous routine that included' two icy showers each day, a long, bracing hike before breakfast, hours spent in the company of dour but expert Scots fishermen and boatbuilders. He became captain of the cricket and hockey teams, and "head boy" of the school in his final year. He was "often naughty, never nasty," pitched in at dirty jobs like anyone else (on one school cruise when everybody else was seasick, he did all the cooking and dishwashing). He early proved he could do most things with less effort than other boys, sometimes showed impatience...