Definition of "lour"
lour
verb
third-person singular simple present lours, present participle louring, simple past and past participle loured
(intransitive) To frown; to look sullen.
Quotations
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, […], stanza XV, pages 20–21, lines 251–255
Their lank black hair hung round their black visages; and the only points of relief in the wild countenance which loured from under their strange head-dresses, were the dark, piercing eyes, and the white teeth.
1840 May, “Art. V.—Travels in Koordistan and Mesopotamia. By Ja[me]s Baillie Fraser. London: 1840.”, in The Dublin Review, volume VIII, number XVI, London: C[harles] Dolman, […] (Nephew and successor to J. Booker.) […], page 432
(intransitive, figuratively) 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.
Quotations
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, [Act I, scene i]
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], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 870–874
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 Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XXV, London: Printed by John Nichols, for D. Henry, […], published January 1755, page 570
The queen's letter coming up to the duchess's own ideas of her own deserts, she condescended to speak on the subject which had caused such portentous blackness to lour on her countenance, on her first meeting her royal mistress.
1873, Agnes Strickland, chapter VIII, in Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest. [...] In Six Volumes, new revised and augmented edition, volume VI, London: Bell & Daldy, […], page 285
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 the Text of Paley (Bohn’s Classical Library), volume II, London: George Bell & Sons, […], page 230
noun
plural lours
A frown, a scowl; an angry or sullen look.
Quotations
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 One, volume II, Vienna: Printed for R[udolf] Sammer, bookseller, paragraph 49, page 156