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sullen
[ suhl-uhn ]
adjective
- showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve.
Antonyms: cheerful
- persistently and silently ill-humored; morose.
Synonyms: bad-tempered, cranky, sour, moody, sulky
Antonyms: cheerful
- indicative of gloomy ill humor.
- gloomy or dismal, as weather or a sound.
Synonyms: dark, mournful, somber, overcast, clouded, cheerless
- sluggish, as a stream.
- Obsolete. malignant, as planets or influences.
sullen
/ ˈsʌlən /
adjective
- unwilling to talk or be sociable; sulky; morose
- sombre; gloomy
a sullen day
- literary.sluggish; slow
a sullen stream
- obsolete.threatening
noun
- archaic.plural a sullen mood
Derived Forms
- ˈsullenness, noun
- ˈsullenly, adverb
Other Words From
- sul·len·ly adverb
- sul·len·ness noun
- un·sul·len adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of sullen1
Word History and Origins
Origin of sullen1
Example Sentences
My students were sullen, off-task, unfocused, and wouldn’t talk to each other or to me.
Thursday was supposed to be the day we shelved all the sullen, sad reminders of the difficulties and tragedies of the past year, if only for three hours.
There was the Michelin-starred restaurant where the somewhat sullen chef ruled dinner service by fear and intimidation.
They waved you into the sullen parking garage on — sigh — your word alone.
Hard and sullen, she barely bothers to conceal her misanthropy from the tourists who come into her shop, and maintains a near-reclusive distance from residents of the town.
The pro-Russian rebel militia remained sullen and hostile toward the monitors.
Spring is a time of new beginnings, but in the years that followed, I became inward and sullen as those memories took me under.
When the candidate was sullen and grumpy—which was often—he could read his mood and adjust the bubble accordingly.
Strung out on a punishing regimen of diet pills, the once genial young man becomes a sullen, self-pitying wreck.
Kristen Stewart was cast as Marylou at 17, before she played fair-skinned and often sullen Bella Swan in The Twilight series.
They threw down their weapons with sullen obedience and the first great step towards the re-conquest of India was taken.
The boy, a trifle sullen since the last words, stood on the hearth with his back to the fire, his hands clasped behind him.
But for the trees, these sullen skies and level grounds would render England dreary enough.
But it was with sullen reluctance; and mutterings were to be heard, on all sides, that the time would come yet.
They made an odd procession as they marched out of the hall, under the sullen eyes of the baulked cut-throats and their mistress.
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