sullen

comparative sullener · superlative sullenest

1. Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

   And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.

   1709, Matthew Prior, Pleasure

   2 more examples

   Still she entreats, and prettily entreats, / For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale; / Still is he sullen, still he lours and frets, / ‘Twixt crimson shame and anger ashy-pale;

   1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis

   2007, Steven Wilson, "Normal", Porcupine Tree, Nil Recurring. Sullen and bored the kids stay / And in this way wish away each day

   Synonyms: sulky, morose, broody · Antonyms: cheerful, content, lighthearted, pleased

2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.

   a sullen atmosphere

   3 more examples

   Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], line 88

   He added not; and Satan bowing low / His gray diſſimulation, diſappear'd / Into thin Air diffuſ'd: for now began / Night with her ſullen wing to double-ſhade / The Deſert; Fowls in thir clay neſts were couch't; / And now wild Beaſts came forth the woods to roam.

   1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 27, lines 497–502

   No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, / The dreaded East is all the wind that blows.

   1714, Alexander Pope, “Canto 4”, in The Rape of the Lock

   Synonyms: forlorn, melancholy, cheerless, comfortless, bleak, dark, morose, depressing

3. Sluggish; slow.

   The larger [stream] was placid, and even sullen, in its course.

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   1 more example

   When ends life's transient dream, / when death’s cold, sullen stream / shall o'er me roll,

   1830, Ray Palmer, “My Faith Looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary”

   Synonyms: ponderous, stately, crawling, slack, slow-moving, languid, languorous, draggy

4. obsoleteMischievous; malignant; unpropitious.

   she meets again / The savage murderer's sullen gaze,

   1835, John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone

   1 more example

   Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, / They threaten every Fortune mixt with mine.

   1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number)

   Synonyms: malevolent, ominous, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful

5. obsoleteObstinate; intractable.

   Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them.

   a. 1694, John Tillotson, Imprudence of Atheism

   Synonyms: inflexible, persistent, adamant, ardent, grim, untiring, bent on, bloody-minded

plural sullens

1. archaicOne who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

   He sit neither with seint Johan, / Symond ne Jude, / Ne with maydenes ne with martires, / Confessours ne wydewes; / But by hymself as a soleyn, / And served on erthe.

   c. 1377, William Langland, Piers Plowman, lines 7830–7835

   Synonyms: loner, shut-in, aloner, anchoret, anchorite, eremite, hermit, Miller of Dee

2. in pluralSullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.

   And let them die that age and sullens have;

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 2, scene 1], line 139

   2 more examples

   If she be not sick of the sullens, I see not the least infirmity in her.

   1632, Philip Massinger, “Act III. Scene IV.”, in The Emperor of the East

   [M]y brother […] charged my desire of being excused coming down to sullens, because a certain person had been spoken against, upon whom, as he supposed, my fancy ran.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter 7, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: glumps, mope

present singular third person sullens · participle present sullening · participle past sullened · past sullened

1. obsoleteTo make sullen.

   The idle man is like the dumb jack in a virginal: while all the other dance out a winning music, this, like a member out of joint, sullens the whole body, with an ill disturbing laziness.

   c. 1620, Owen Feltham, “XLVIII. Of Idleness.”, in Resolves, Divine, Moral, and Political; republished as Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political, London: Whittaker & Co, 1840, page 128