lour
/ˈlaʊə/US/ˈlaʊɚ/
lour verb: to frown; to look sullen.
Verb
lour (third-person singular simple present lours, present participle louring, simple past and past participle loured)
- To frown; to look sullen.
- [...] Juno took her place:
But ſullen Diſcontent ſat lowring on her Face.1700, [John] Dryden, “Homer’s Ilias”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book I, page 215 - 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; [...]1814, [Lord Byron], “[Lara, a Tale.] Canto I.”, in Lara, a Tale. Jacqueline, a Tale, London: […] [F]or J[ohn] Murray, […], [b]y T[homas] Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XV, pages 20–21, lines 251–255
- [...] Juno took her place:
- To be dark, gloomy, and threatening, as clouds; of the sky: to be covered with dark and threatening clouds; to show threatening signs of approach, as a tempest.
- 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.c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC... - 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.1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Now is the winter of our diſcontent,
Noun
lour (plural lours)
- A frown, a scowl; an angry or sullen look.
- I have ſuch averſion to ill temper, that I could ſooner forgive my wife adultery, than croſſneſs. I cannot taſte Caſſio's kiſs on her lips; but I can ſee a lour on her brow.1798, attributed to Richard Griffith or Laurence Sterne, The Koran: Or, Essays, Sentiments, Characters, and Callimachies, of Tria Juncta in Uno, M.N.A. or Master of No Arts. Three Volumes Complete in...
- Of the sky, the weather, etc.: a dark, gloomy, and threatening appearance.
- Synonyms:
- gloom, gloominess
lour meaning in Malayalam
lour in Malayalam
- frown, scowl, look sullen
- മുഖം വീർപ്പിക്കുക, കോപസൂചനകമായി നെറ്റി ചുളിക്കുക, അമർഷത്തോടെ നെറ്റിചുളിക്കുക, പുരികം കോപസൂചനകമായി നെറ്റി ചുളിയുക, കോട്ടി തുറിച്ചുനോക്കുക, കോപത്തോടെ നോക്കുക
Examples of lour in a sentence
- Weather in Auguſt, 1787. [...] dark, louring, cool, briſk ſhower.1788 July, “Meteorological Diaries for July, 1788; and for August, 1787”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The...
- The sun might shine, or the clouds might lour; but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VI, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London...
- Seek to be prosperous; once let fortune lour, and the aid supplied by friends is naught.1891, Euripides, “The Phœnician Maidens”, in Edward P[hilip] Coleridge, transl., The Plays of Euripides: Translated into English Prose from...
- If here to-day the cloud of thunder lours / To-morrow it will hie on far behests; [...]1922 October, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] IX”, in Last Poems, London: Grant Richards Ltd., →OCLC, stanza 6, page 25, lines 21–22:
Synonyms of lour
Forms of lour
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | lours |
| present participle | louring |
| past participle | loured |
| past | loured |
| alternative form | lower |
| Noun | |
| plural | lours |
Origin of lour
The verb is derived from Middle English louren, lour, loure (“to frown or scowl; to be dark or overcast; to droop, fade, wither; to lurk, skulk”), probably from Old English *lūran, *lūrian, from Proto-Germanic *lūraną (“to lie in wait, lurk”). The English word is cognate with Danish lure (“to lie in ambush; to take a nap”), Middle Dutch loeren (modern Dutch loeren (“to lurk, spy on”)), Middle Low German lûren (“to lie in ambush”), German Low German luren (“to lurk”), Middle High German lūren (“to lie in ambush”) (modern German lauern (“to lie in ambush; to lurk”)), Icelandic lúra (“to take a nap”), Saterland Frisian luurje (“to lie in wait”), West Frisian loere (“to lurk”), and Swedish lura (“to lie in ambush; to deceive, fool, trick; to lure; to take a nap”); and is related to lurk. The noun is derived from the verb.
Words formed from lour
Words that rhyme with lour
4 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about lour
- What does lour mean?
- Lour means to frown; to look sullen.
- What is lour in Malayalam?
- Lour in Malayalam is മുഖം വീർപ്പിക്കുക, കോപസൂചനകമായി നെറ്റി ചുളിക്കുക, അമർഷത്തോടെ നെറ്റിചുളിക്കുക. See Lour meaning in Malayalam.
- How do you use lour in a sentence?
- Weather in Auguſt, 1787. [...] dark, louring, cool, briſk ſhower.
- What part of speech is lour?
- Lour can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce lour?
- Lour is pronounced /ˈlaʊə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of lour?
- The past tense of lour is loured.
Words near lour in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lour (page history and authors); lour (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lour.wav.
Cite this entry: “lour.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lour. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.