sulk
Americanverb (used without object)
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sulks,
present (3rd person singular)
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sulked,
past participle, past
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sulking
present participle
noun
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a state or fit of sulking.
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sulks, ill-humor shown by sulking.
to be in the sulks.
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Also sulker. a person who sulks.
verb
noun
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(often plural) a state or mood of feeling resentful or sullen
he's in a sulk because he lost the game
he's got the sulks
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Also: sulker. a person who sulks
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sulksimple
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sulkssimple
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have sulkedperfect
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has sulkedperfect
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am sulkingprogressive
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are sulkingprogressive
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is sulkingprogressive
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have been sulkingperfect progressive
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has been sulkingperfect progressive
Past
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sulkedsimple
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had sulkedperfect
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was sulkingprogressive
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were sulkingprogressive
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had been sulkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sulk
First recorded in 1775–85; back formation from sulky
Explanation
When you are displeased by something and you let your gloomy mood show, you're sulking. Do you want to bake another cake, or are you going to sulk all day about the one you dropped? When you say someone sulks, the tone of the word suggests the person is overdoing it. You wouldn't accuse a widow of sulking at her husband's funeral, because she has a good reason to be sad and gloomy. Instead of sulking because you messed up your tuba solo during the concert, why not put your energy into practice? Or switch to violin.
Vocabulary lists containing sulk
Where the Red Fern Grows
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My Brother Sam is Dead
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Out of the Dust
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Kane said Bayern had "no time to sulk" and "would not let the defeat define our season".
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
It comes from the Welsh pwdu, meaning to sulk, which itself originated with the English word pout, combined with the Welsh verb-forming suffix -u.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2025
Nine months later, after the New Year's Eve party where Joel messes up again by trying to defend Ellie, he excuses himself to sulk with Ellie’s guitar on his porch.
From Salon ● May 19, 2025
The youngsters sulk, stomp and scamper, pull pranks and horse around.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
Now he had met Ulrike, a lean, angular-faced woman with the body of a young man, who worked at an embassy and seemed determined to sulk her way through her Nigerian posting.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"All players want to play, it's normal, it's what makes us happy. I have team-mates who want to play too, but no one sulks," Griezmann told reporters.
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2025
He doesn’t say so, exactly, but he sulks if I try to wear them.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 12, 2022
Ramón de Ocampo, who plays Hamlet, broods and sulks as any Hamlet must.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2022
He rages and sulks; he suffers feeling rejected for reasons he can’t always control.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2022
He could remember no other unusual conversation with her, no strange behavior, no meaningful looks or sulks to suggest that her schoolgirlish passion had lasted beyond that day in June.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
When I first graduated, I moved back in with my parents and sulked around because I was unemployed and without an internship lined up.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Some 17-year-olds might have sulked at the prospect of swapping the glamour of the Premier League for games against Grimsby and Peterborough.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
And then years later in 2021, Mr. Trump sulked about his political future inside Mar-a-Lago.
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
Early in their careers, Campbell, Jaquez and Singleton could have sulked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2023
Men limped back, sat out in the fields making fires, sulked along eastward, out in the dark.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
Laura and Mary will dance, when not getting in one another’s hair, or sulking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
So does not sulking when kids don’t invite you on their vacation or forget to send Mother’s Day cards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
One such scene in the premiere smash cuts between a lonesome Chris sulking by himself at home.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2025
The Mariners lost Sunday, but they weren’t sulking.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2024
“Stop sulking and put your clothes on,” she said.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
