sullen

[suhl-uhn]

adjective

1. showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve.

   Antonyms: cheerful

2. persistently and silently ill-humored; morose.

   Synonyms: bad-tempered, cranky, sour, moody, sulky
   Antonyms: cheerful

3. indicative of gloomy ill humor.

4. gloomy or dismal, as weather or a sound.

   Synonyms: dark, mournful, somber, overcast, clouded, cheerless

5. sluggish, as a stream.

   Synonyms: stagnant, slow

6. Obsolete.,  malignant, as planets or influences.

sullen

/ ˈsʌlən /

adjective

1. unwilling to talk or be sociable; sulky; morose

2. sombre; gloomy

   a sullen day

3. literary,  sluggish; slow

   a sullen stream

4. obsolete,  threatening

noun

1. archaic,  (plural) a sullen mood

Other Word Forms

• sullenly adverb
• sullenness noun
• unsullen adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of sullen¹

First recorded in 1565–75; earlier sollen, solain, from Middle English solein(e), solain “sole, solitary, sullen,” possibly from Vulgar Latin sōlānus (unattested), from Latin sōlus “alone, only, single”

Word History and Origins

Origin of sullen¹

C16: perhaps from Anglo-French solain (unattested), ultimately related to Latin sōlus alone

Synonym Study

See cross. See glum.

Example Sentences

But to bemoan the barely audible banality of it all – the dull motives, the mumbled attempts to shift blame, the sullen complaints about prison life and unsatisfactory psychiatric evaluations - is to miss the truth.

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He said the teenager came across as an "unremarkable, sullen, untalkative, gawky teenage boy" during their sessions together.

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She immediately picks up that something isn’t right between a mother who has come in with her sullen adolescent son.

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Unlike so many queer films of the time, Lee’s movie was not a sullen documentary, nor was it about HIV/AIDS or gay people who get killed or turn out to be murderers themselves.

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After a pause, he returns to his usual sullen pitch and adds, “Well, the next generation tells time on their phones, so I figured no one was gonna miss this one.”

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Related Words

• churlish 
• dour 
• gloomy 
• glum 
• grumpy 
• hostile 
• morose 
• petulant 
• somber 
• surly 
• ugly