Sullen

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

2. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens. [Obs.] Shak.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.] Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness. Feltham.

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

1. Lonely; solitary; desolate. [Obs.] Wyclif (Job iii. 14).

2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. Milton. Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. Shak.

3. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. Dryden.

4. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose. And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. Prior.

5. Obstinate; intractable. Things are as sullen as we are. Tillotson.

6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course." Sir W. Scott.

Synonyms: Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish; fretful; ill- humored; petulant; gloomy; malign; intractable. 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. No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows; The dreaded east is all the wind that blows. Pope. -- Sul"len*ly, adv. Sul"len*ness, n.