SULLEN

heavy, lowering, sullen, threatening

(adjective) darkened by clouds; “a heavy sky”

dark, dour, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen

(adjective) showing a brooding ill humor; “a dark scowl”; “the proverbially dour New England Puritan”; “a glum, hopeless shrug”; “he sat in moody silence”; “a morose and unsociable manner”; “a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius”- Bruce Bliven; “a sour temper”; “a sullen crowd”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

---

Etymology

Adjective

sullen (comparative sullener, superlative sullenest)

Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.

Sluggish; slow.

(obsolete) Lonely; solitary; desolate.

(obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.

(obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.

Synonyms

• sulky, morose

Antonyms

• cheerful

• content

• lighthearted

• pleased

Noun

sullen (plural sullens)

(obsolete) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

(chiefly, in plural) Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.

Anagrams

• unsell

Source: Wiktionary

---

Sul"len, a. Etym: [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]

1. Lonely; solitary; desolate. [Obs.] Wyclif (Job iii. 14).

2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. Milton. Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. Shak.

3. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. Dryden.

4. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose. And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. Prior.

5. Obstinate; intractable. Things are as sullen as we are. Tillotson.

6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course." Sir W. Scott.

Syn.

– Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish; fretful; ill- humored; petulant; gloomy; malign; intractable.

– Sullen, Sulky. Both sullen and sulky show themselves in the demeanor. Sullenness seems to be an habitual sulkiness, and sulkiness a temporary sullenness. The former may be an innate disposition; the latter, a disposition occasioned by recent injury. Thus we are in a sullen mood, and in a sulky fit. No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows; The dreaded east is all the wind that blows. Pope.

– Sul"len*ly, adv.

– Sul"len*ness, n.

Sul"len, n.

1. One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

2. pl.

Definition: Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens. [Obs.] Shak.

Sul"len, v. t.

Definition: To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.] Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness. Feltham.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

---