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sullen

adj
/ˈsʌlən/

Etymology

From Middle English soleyn, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.

  1. derived from sōlus
  2. derived from sole
  3. derived from soleyn
  4. inherited from soleyn

Definitions

  1. Having a brooding ill temper

    Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

    • Still she entreats, and prettily entreats, / For to a pretty ear she tunes her tale; / Still is he sullen, still he lours and frets, / ‘Twixt crimson shame and anger ashy-pale;
    • And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.
    • 2007, Steven Wilson, "Normal", Porcupine Tree, Nil Recurring. Sullen and bored the kids stay / And in this way wish away each day

  2. Gloomy

    Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.

    • a sullen atmosphere
    • Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;

  3. Sluggish

    Sluggish; slow.

    • The larger [stream] was placid, and even sullen, in its course.
    • When ends life's transient dream, / when death’s cold, sullen stream / shall o'er me roll,
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. Mischievous

      Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.

      • Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, / They threaten every Fortune mixt with mine.
      • she meets again / The savage murderer's sullen gaze,

    2. Obstinate

      Obstinate; intractable.

      • Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them.

    3. One who is solitary, or lives alone

      One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

      • He sit neither with seint Johan, / Symond ne Jude, / Ne with maydenes ne with martires, / Confessours ne wydewes; / But by hymself as a soleyn, / And served on erthe.

    4. Sullen feelings or manners

      Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.

      • And let them die that age and sullens have;
      • If she be not sick of the sullens, I see not the least infirmity in her.
      • [M]y brother […] charged my desire of being excused coming down to sullens, because a certain person had been spoken against, upon whom, as he supposed, my fancy ran.

    5. To make sullen.

      • The idle man is like the dumb jack in a virginal: while all the other dance out a winning music, this, like a member out of joint, sullens the whole body, with an ill disturbing laziness.

The neighborhood

Derived

sullenly, sullenness, unsullen

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at sullen. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01sullen02gloomy03dejected04dispirited05disheartened06despairing07mood

A definitional loop anchored at sullen. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at sullen

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA