Sullen

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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).
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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.
            [1913 Webster] -- {Sul"len*ly}, adv. --
            {Sul"len*ness}, n.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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