Sullen \Sul"len\, a. [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).
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2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. --Milton.
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Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. --Shak.
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3. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
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Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. --Dryden.
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4. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill
humor; morose.
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And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. --Prior.
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5. Obstinate; intractable.
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Things are as sullen as we are. --Tillotson.
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6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and
even sullen, in its course." --Sir W. Scott.
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Syn: Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish;
fretful; ill-humored; petulant; gloomy; malign;
intractable.
Usage: 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.
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No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows;
The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.
--Pope.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sullen \Sul"len\, n.
1. One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.]
--Piers Plowman.
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2. pl. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to
have the sullens. [Obs.] --Shak.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sullen \Sul"len\, v. t.
To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.]
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Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness. --Feltham.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
sullen
adj 1: 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" [syn: dark, dour, glowering,
glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour]
2: darkened by clouds; "a heavy sky" [syn: heavy, lowering,
threatening]
WordNet (r) 2.0
154 Moby Thesaurus words for "sullen":
antisocial, at odds, autistic, averse, bad-tempered, balking,
balky, bashful, beetle-browed, bigoted, black, black-browed,
brooding, broody, bulldogged, bulletheaded, bullheaded,
cantankerous, case-hardened, chapfallen, choleric, churlish, close,
contrary, crabbed, crabby, cranky, crestfallen, cross,
cross-grained, crotchety, crusty, cursory, cynical, dark, dejected,
depressed, depressing, differing, difficult, disagreeing,
disinclined, dismal, disobedient, dissociable, dogged, dogmatic,
dour, dreary, dumpish, dyspeptic, fanatic, forced, fractious,
fretful, froward, frowning, funereal, gloomy, glowering, glum,
grim, grum, grumpy, hardheaded, headstrong, hostile, ill-humored,
ill-natured, ill-tempered, incompatible, indisposed, indocile,
insociable, intolerant, involuntary, irascible, long-faced,
lowering, lugubrious, malevolent, malicious, malign, mean,
melancholy, moodish, moody, mopey, moping, mopish, morose, mulish,
mumpish, mutinous, nongregarious, obstinate, opinionated, opposed,
ornery, out of humor, out of sorts, overzealous, peevish,
perfunctory, persevering, pertinacious, perverse, pessimistic,
petulant, pigheaded, pouting, recalcitrant, refractory, resistant,
restive, runty, saturnine, scowling, self-contained,
self-sufficient, self-willed, set, snug, socially incompatible,
sour, splenetic, stiff-necked, strong-willed, strongheaded,
stubborn, stuffy, sulking, sulky, surly, temperamental, tenacious,
tenebrose, tenebrous, ugly, unclubbable, uncommunicative,
uncompanionable, uncongenial, unconsenting, uncooperative,
unfriendly, ungenial, unregenerate, unsociable, unsocial,
unwilling, wayward, willful, wrongheaded
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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