dourness

Despite the dourness of his expectations, he gave a startled jump.

Is the dourness of this year's election post-traumatic fallout from 9/11?

"We were more like green book bags, black tights, hair pulled straight back and dourness."

People in the village knew him by his dourness, by the distance he put between himself and them.

The lift of the music made up for the dourness of the conclusions.

I'm ready for them," Brian said, his handsome face set in dourness.

His mind was clearing, and the natural dourness of his long face intensified.

But people who assemble programs also worry that audiences will not endure an evening of unrelenting dourness.

This led to encouraging a certain dourness to Iceland by discouraging dancing or other entertainment.

In any case, he preferred her unsmiling dourness to vulgar garrulity.

His dourness though, had diminished not a jot.

Her clenched jaw accentuated the dourness he had gleaned from the intercept.

And they are at odds with Bernie's up-to-the-minute dourness.

Since Sprague had ceased, for the moment, to drink, he tended to dourness.

Some of the dourness went out of the man's face; Forbin was less pleased.

They displayed a quirky individuality that belies the Singapore stereotype of dourness.

The paradox of these five pieces was a dourness of speech in the service of an ardent soul.

By discouraging all but religious leisure activities, it fostered a certain dourness, which was for a long time considered an Icelandic stereotype.

And yet Rankin, who's in his early 40's, has a younger writer's impatience with the dourness and rigidity of the form.

For those put off by Mr. Carter's later dourness of expression, it offers an interesting window to his powerful gifts.

Becker's face reassumed its usual mask of businesslike dourness.

Although Alcoy has a reputation for dourness and occasional winter snow, the townspeople are usually very friendly.

No dourness here.

His dourness amused her.

But even in this early period there are signs of the dourness to come, as in the small 1905-1906 grisaille of a man on a bed.