Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Showing a brooding ill humor or silent resentment; morose or sulky.
- adj. Gloomy or somber in tone, color, or portent: sullen, gray skies.
- adj. Sluggish; slow: the sullen current of a canal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Being alone; solitary; lonely; hence, single; unmarried.
- Being but one; unique; hence, rare; remarkable.
- Remaining alone through ill humor; unsociable; silent and cross; sulky; morose; glum.
- Gloomy; dismal; somber.
- Sad; sorrowful; melancholy.
- Slow-moving; sluggish; dull: as, a sullen pace.
- Malignant; unpropitious; foreboding ill; baleful.
- Synonyms Gloomy, Sullen, Sulky, Morose, Splenetic. These words are arranged in the order of their intensity and of their degrees of activity toward others. Gloomy has the figurative suggestion of physical gloom or darkness: the gloomy man has little brightness in his mind, or he sees little light ahead. The sullen man is silent because he is sluggishly angry and somewhat bitter, and he repels friendly advances by silence and a lowering aspect rather than by words. The sulky person persists in being sullen beyond all reason and for mere whim: the young are often sulky. In the morose man there is an element of hate, and he meets advances with rudeness or cruel words: the young have rarely development of character enough to be morose. The splenetic man is sulky and peevish, with frequent outbursts of irritation venting itself upon persons or things. Any of these words may indicate either a temporary mood or a strong tendency of nature.
- n. A solitary person; a recluse.
- n. plural Sullen feelings; sulks; sullenness.
- n. A meal for one person.
- To make sullen, morose, or sulky.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Lonely; solitary; desolate.
- adj. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
- adj. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
- adj. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose.
- adj. Obstinate; intractable.
- adj. Heavy; dull; sluggish.
- n. obsolete One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
- n. obsolete Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.
- v. obsolete To make sullen or sluggish.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. showing a brooding ill humor
- adj. darkened by clouds
Etymologies
- Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman solein ("alone"), from sole ("single, sole, alone"), from Latin sōlus ("by oneself alone"). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman solein, alone, from sol, single, from Latin sōlus, by oneself alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
““I am afraid not,” Rysatam replied, his expression sullen.”
“For Nau-hau, in sullen volcanic rage, was ripe to erupt at the slightest opportunity.”
“The problem is, this need for external validaion doesn't lead to changes when it fails to materialize ... rather, it seems to result in sullen ad hominem attacks on critics (witness "freedom fries").”
“Simon watched all this from a couple of yards away, his expression sullen or possibly jealous.”
“Paolo followed her into the room, his expression sullen and inimical.”
The Count's Blackmail Bargain
“Her expression sullen, Janis whirled around without replying and walked back into the dressing room.”
Buried Alive, The Biography of Janis Joplin
“During all this work the sealers stood about in sullen groups.”
“The court people petted their nervous horses, and beside the gallows a black-robed man looked about in sullen restlessness.”
“For Nau - hau, in sullen volcanic rage, was ripe to erupt at the slightest opportunity.”
“It was all rock and dense forest, and unpeopled; only wild animals and seabirds sought the shelter it provided from the terrors of the West Wind; but he drove them out in sullen anger, and made on this strip of land his last stand against the Four Men.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sullen’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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GRE words Review
Review for GRE
Martinet, Polyglot, Hack, berate, hystrionics, shun, sullen, wanton, reluctant, miser, unseemly, perfunctory and 11 more...
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gre words
convoluted, deride, melancholy, antagonize, antagonize, deference, portentous, prodigious, ruminate, ineffable, turgid, mossy and 58 more...
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I am : oppressive
Words that are oppressive. Describing anger, violence, aggression (overt and covert), opposition, tension. strong stance and lack of harmony.
Still working on exact definition...angry, enraged, furious, mad, obstreperous, violent, aggressive, truculent, obdurate, obstinate, defiant, hostile and 33 more...
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September Words-11849
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
psilocybin, raca, schema, myriad, copacetic, chastise, fractal, tourniquet, turncoat, vicarious, surreptitiously, clandestine and 34 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Cage
cage, depart, nothing, void, strain, unconscious, never, alone, floor, God, hell, winter and 219 more...
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GRE vocab
martinet, churlish, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, histrionics, prevarication, ignominy, impugn, fastidious, trenchant, perfunctory and 155 more...
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monica's list
just words i think are pretty.
luminous, iridescent, crestfallen, wanderlust, autumn, autumnal, spark, candescence, exaltations, merry, empathy, tainted and 96 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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GRE list 1
Bloviate, Bacchanalia, mirth, covet, inconsequential, prescient, heresy, revelry, modality, gentrify, vitiate, tantalize and 182 more...
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Magooosh
impugn, repudiate, sardonic, barnstorm, bemoan, unseemly, cornerstone, noisome, malodorous, retroactively, spuriously, spasmodically and 217 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sullen.
jboyd A pointed example of usage in the sense of "solitary":
—Patrick O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), p. 42. Jul 29, 2012
Noelle Knight "...Stupid vampires. Stupid dress code. I was Sullen, with a capital S." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris Feb 5, 2011
agustinolvera "Speaking of college applications, Edward, Charlie said, his tone even more sullen-he tried to avoid addressing Edward directly, and when he had to, it exacerbated his bad mood." Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer page19 Oct 4, 2010
bilby
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
- Dylan Thomas, 'In My Craft or Sullen Art'. Oct 12, 2009