Sullen
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. archaic
"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."
- 2 Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness. in-plural
"And let them die that age and sullens have;"
- 1 To make sullen. obsolete
"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."
- 1 Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
"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;"
- 2 Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
"a sullen atmosphere"
- 3 Sluggish; slow.
"The larger [stream] was placid, and even sullen, in its course."
- 4 Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. obsolete
"Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, / They threaten every Fortune mixt with mine."
- 5 Obstinate; intractable. obsolete
"Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them."
- 1 darkened by clouds wordnet
- 2 showing a brooding ill humor wordnet
Example
More examples"She had a sullen look on her face."
Etymology
From Middle English soleyn, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.