SULLEN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sullen

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/sˈələn/ Listen

adjective

Sullen adj.

1.

Lonely; solitary; desolate. (Obs.)

2.

Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. "Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change."

3.

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

4.

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

5.

Obstinate; intractable. "Things are as sullen as we are."

6.

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

Synonyms: 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."

noun

Sullen n.

1.

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

2.

pl. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens. (Obs.)

verb

Sullen v. t. To make sullen or sluggish. (Obs.) "Sullens the whole body with... laziness."

See images of 'Sullen'

Etymology of 'Sullen'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sullen" Quotes from Famous Books

... air was full of dead leaves, and the grass rustled with them as though it were alive, for this was the first wind since the frost. The great boughs of the oaks rattled and groaned above her, and high overhead, among the sullen clouds, a flight of rooks were being ...

— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard

... days—two sullen, four tempestuous—was clear again and promised another stretch of fair weather. This was important, for they counted on having to sleep a night in the open before reaching the M'Lauchlins' camp. Old Strongtharm had told Sir Oliver of a cave at the head of the pass and directed ...

— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... ominously. "Stop it!" he cried. "You don't know what you're talking about." His look intimidated her. The fury of jealousy subsided to a sullen muttering. "I hate her! She bad to the people. She want starve the people. She think her yellow ...

— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner

... Squire's brow, before thoughtful, though not sullen, cleared up benignly. To say truth, the Squire was dying to get rid of the stocks, if he could but do so handsomely and with dignity; and if all the stars in the astrological horoscope had conjoined together to give Miss Jemima "assurance of a husband," they could not ...

— The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 • Various

... remonstrance (1 Sam. xxiv. 9-15) is full of nobleness, of wounded affection surviving still, of conscious rectitude, of solemn devout appeal to the judgment of God. He has no words of reproach for Saul, no weak upbraidings, no sullen anger, no repaying hate with hate. He almost pleads with the unhappy king, and yet there is nothing undignified or feeble in his tone. The whole is full of correspondences, often of verbal identity, ...

— The Life of David - As Reflected in His Psalms • Alexander Maclaren

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