dourness
Habitual severe demeanor
Dourness is a quality of being stern, gloomy, or grimly unyielding.
It suggests a disposition that offers no warmth or easy welcome: the dourness of a Scottish winter, His dourness made small talk impossible.
The word carries connotations of stubborn severity rather than mere sadness.
Uncompromising strictness of manner
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
- harshnessUnsparing quality or manner
- grimnessStern, forbidding quality
- severityIntensity of sternness
graveness · soberness · humorlessness · solemnity · forbiddingness · staidness · stoicism · reserve
Silently resentful ill humor
- morosenessIll-tempered gloominess
- grumpinessBad-tempered disposition
- moodinessChangeable emotional state
- churlishnessRude, ungracious behavior
surliness · bitterness · irritability · peevishness · crabbiness · cantankerousness · gruffness · crossness
Subdued, lasting sadness
- despondencyProfound loss of hope
- bleaknessQuality of being dreary
- sombernessGrave, serious quality
- drearinessState of dispiriting dullness
joylessness · cheerlessness · glumness · heaviness · dismalness · forlornness · darkness · desolation
Quality of being unbending
- rigidityState of being unbending
- obstinacyUnyielding adherence to position
- unyieldingnessRefusal to give way
- intransigenceRefusal to compromise
implacability · adamancy · unbendingness · stubbornness · doggedness · firmness · resoluteness · strictness
sternness
Uncompromising strictness of manner
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
- harshnessUnsparing quality or manner
- grimnessStern, forbidding quality
severity · graveness · soberness · humorlessness · solemnity · forbiddingness · staidness · stoicism · reserve · formality
sullenness
Silently resentful ill humor
- morosenessIll-tempered gloominess
- grumpinessBad-tempered disposition
- moodinessChangeable emotional state
churlishness · surliness · bitterness · irritability · peevishness · crabbiness · cantankerousness · gruffness · crossness · testiness
melancholy
Subdued, lasting sadness
- despondencyProfound loss of hope
- bleaknessQuality of being dreary
- sombernessGrave, serious quality
dreariness · joylessness · cheerlessness · glumness · heaviness · dismalness · forlornness · darkness · desolation · lugubriousness
inflexibility
Quality of being unbending
- rigidityState of being unbending
- obstinacyUnyielding adherence to position
- unyieldingnessRefusal to give way
intransigence · implacability · adamancy · unbendingness · stubbornness · doggedness · firmness · resoluteness · strictness · uncompromisingness
- grumpinessgrumpiness, crankiness, moodiness, sullenness, grouchiness
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
- humorlessnesshumorlessness, seriousness, deadpan, poker face, stone face
- sternnessrigor, strictness, severity, harshness, firmness
dournesscheerfulness
State of bright spirits
joyfulness · brightness · merriment · lightheartedness · buoyancy
dournessgeniality
Warmth of manner
warmth · affability · friendliness · cordiality · amiability