sulky
Americanadjective
-
marked by or given to sulking; sullen.
- Antonyms:
- good-natured, good-humored
-
gloomy or dull.
sulky weather.
noun
adjective
-
sullen, withdrawn, or moody, through or as if through resentment
-
dull or dismal
sulky weather
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sulky
1735–45; akin to Old English solcen- lazy (in solcennes laziness), Frisian (N dial.) sulkig sulky
Explanation
Someone who's sulky is gloomy, or quietly unhappy. A sulky teenager is generally not a lot of fun at a family party. Some people tend to be sulky when they're unhappy or disappointed — when you're sulky, you're not just sad, but you mope and frown and sigh. You might be sulky if your brother gets to travel to England and you don't, or if your coworker gets a promotion instead of you. Sulky probably comes from an Old English word, asolcen, "idle, lazy, or slow," which has a Proto-Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing sulky
Emotions on Display
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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The Bridge Home
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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:
This is all so he can coddle his sulky, wild teenage son while expecting Carrie to limit all extracurricular cuddles to her adopted kitty, Shoe.
From Salon ● May 29, 2025
No sniggering jokes now about princely flings and sulky princesses and body doubles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2024
Dr. Ash clearly doesn’t take his son’s career seriously, and in just a few days Jed seems to regress to a kind of sulky adolescence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 4, 2023
One activity that is an immense source of pride for the young men and women living on estates like Moyross is so-called sulky racing.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2023
During the visit, Chadwick continued to show his sulky side, treating the American so rudely that his colleagues and friends were forced to make excuses.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Often, Clarence and his neighbors got their workhorses together, attached them to sulkies and trotted them around to see which was fastest.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2011
A few minutes before the sulkies were brought out, the celebrities all stood around in the darkness of the paddock area in tight little pockets with their friends.
From Time Magazine Archive
Each one of them put on colorful racing silks designed by Cassini and then climbed into harness sulkies.
From Time Magazine Archive
At the early-morning hour, the trotters were out exercising too, pulling balloon-tired practice sulkies, passing the two-legged runner in a flurry of neighs, snorts and hooves.
From Time Magazine Archive
Such a concourse ne'er was seen Of coaches, noddies, cars, and jingles, "Chars-a-bancs," to hold sixteen, And "sulkies," meant to carry singles.
From Roland Cashel Volume II (of II) by Lever, Charles James
Most of the so-called Musketeers I spoke to came from Twitter, their central battleground, usually after they replied to one of Musk’s sulkier tweets.
From The Verge ● Jun. 26, 2018
The producers first hoped to cast Ryan Gosling, but he would have made Christian sulkier, more brooding, more Heathcliff.
From Time ● Feb. 12, 2015
And he half knew that it wasn't a success and then became sulkier and more awkward than ever.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Never was a fête given by a sulkier host than King Otho that day proved to be.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 by Various
But if he won't try he won't, and the more you fight him the sulkier he'll get.
From Thoroughbreds by Fraser, William Alexander
A stopped clock has the sulkiest face in the world.
From The Extra Day by Blackwood, Algernon
Well, I should say you did," she sighed in mock heroism, "why, you are the crossest, and crankiest and sulkiest patient it was ever a woman's misfortune to nurse.
From Honor Edgeworth Ottawa's Present Tense by Vera, [pseud.]
The sulkiest tree that I know is the silver beech.
From Selections from Previous Works and Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals by Butler, Samuel
"Have a care of the poor brute, friend!" he cried genially to Diccon, whose looks were of the sulkiest.
From To Have and to Hold by Johnston, Mary
It was the sulkiest hour of the day.
From South Wind by Douglas, Norman
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.
