'Sullen' definitions:
Definition of 'sullen'
(from WordNet)
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" [syn: dark, dour, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen]
adjective
Definition of 'Sullen'
From: GCIDE
- 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). [1913 Webster]
- 2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. [1913 Webster]
- Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 4. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose. [1913 Webster]
- And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. --Prior. [1913 Webster]
- 5. Obstinate; intractable. [1913 Webster]
- Things are as sullen as we are. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster]
- 6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course." --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows; The dreaded east is all the wind that blows. --Pope. [1913 Webster] -- {Sul"len*ly}, adv. -- {Sul"len*ness}, n. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Sullen'
From: GCIDE
- Sullen \Sul"len\, n.
- 1. One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster]
- 2. pl. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Sullen'
From: GCIDE
- Sullen \Sul"len\, v. t. To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness. --Feltham. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'sullen'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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