sulk

present singular third person sulks · participle present sulking · participle past sulked · past sulked

1. intransitiveTo express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.

   You crossed her last wish in death and yet you sulk with me because I don’t whinge like some hired mute from Lalouette’s.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   Mr. Riach, who had been to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, and told me many curious things, […]

   1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC

   Synonyms: mope

plural sulks

1. A state of sulking.

   Leo has been in a sulk all morning.

   2 more examples

   He thanks our miserable Liberal agent, an unbeliever called Donald Somebody, see the caption, who since the court's arrival on his territory has retired into a fuming sulk from which he has only tonight emerged.

   1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

   "[…] home during the holidays," said the Doctor with a good-humoured laugh, "but a fit of the sulks is no very uncommon thing for him;" and then he added,[…]

   2012, Harriet S. Caswell, Walter Harland Or, Memories of the Past, tredition, →ISBN

2. in pluralpreceded by definite articleA fit of sulking; a sulking mood.

   The Puddin', who had got the sulks over Sam's remark that fifteen goes of steak and kidney were enough for any self-respecting man, protested against the singing, which, he said, disturbed his gravy.

   1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 82

3. A person who sulks

   Don't be such a sulk, Leo!

plural sulks

1. A furrow.