sulk
/sʌlk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/sʊlk/
sulk verb: to express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.
Verb
sulk (third-person singular simple present sulks, present participle sulking, simple past and past participle sulked)
- To express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.
- Mr. Riach, who had been to the college, spoke to me like a friend when he was not sulking, and told me many curious things, […]1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC
- You crossed her last wish in death and yet you sulk with me because I don’t whinge like some hired mute from Lalouette’s.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- mope
Noun (1)
sulk (plural sulks)
- A state of sulking.
- Leo has been in a sulk all morning.
- He thanks our miserable Liberal agent, an unbeliever called Donald Somebody, see the caption, who since the court's arrival on his territory has retired into a fuming sulk from which he has only tonight emerged.1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
- A fit of sulking; a sulking mood.
- The Puddin', who had got the sulks over Sam's remark that fifteen goes of steak and kidney were enough for any self-respecting man, protested against the singing, which, he said, disturbed his gravy.1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 82
- A person who sulks
- Don't be such a sulk, Leo!
Noun (2)
sulk (plural sulks)
- A furrow.
sulk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sulk in Hindi
- to sulk, to get offended, to be upset, to be displeased
- रूसना rūsnā
sulk in Tamil
- to express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn
- ஊடு ūṭu, பிணக்கு piṇakku
- state of sulking
- ஊடல் ūṭal
sulk in Marathi
- to sulk, be displeased, offended
- रुसणे rusṇe
sulk in Urdu
- to sulk, to get offended, to be upset, to be displeased
- روسنا rūsnā
More languagesFewer languages
- sulk in Malayalam
- നീരസംകാട്ടുക, മുഖംകോട്ടുക
- sulk in Kannada
- ಮುನಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರು, ವಿಷಣ್ಣನಾಗಿರು, ನಿಷ್ಕಾರಣವಾಗಿ ಮೌನತಾಳು, ಅಸಂತುಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ ಮಾತನಾಡದಿರು
- sulk in Tagalog
- tampo
- sulk in Indonesian
- merajuk
- sulk in Persian
- قهر qahr
- sulk in Thai
- งอน ngɔɔn
- sulk in Vietnamese
- hờn dỗi
Examples of sulk in a sentence
- It would be just like Achilles to be sulking in his tent.
- I would walk home alone, sulking over my status as a noncheerleader.
- Behind him, through a wall of plate glass, gray Manhattan sulked steamily under a drifting pall of April rain.
Synonyms of sulk
Forms of sulk
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sulks |
| present participle | sulking |
| past participle | sulked |
| past | sulked |
| Noun | |
| plural | sulks |
Origin of sulk
Back-formation from sulky, of uncertain origin. Probably from Middle English *sulke, *solke (attested in solcenesse (“idleness; laziness”), from Old English āsolcennys (“idleness; slothfulness; sluggishness; laziness”), from āsolcen (“sulky, languid”), from past participle of Old English āseolcan (“be slow; be weak or slothful; languish”), from Proto-Germanic *selkaną (“to fall in drops; dribble; droop”), from Proto-Indo-European *sélǵ-o-nom, from *selǵ- (“to let go, send”). Cognate with several Indo-Iranian words deriving from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sarȷ́- (such as Sanskrit सृजति (sṛjáti), सर्जन (sárjana), सृक (sṛká)), possibly Hittite 𒊭𒀠𒀝𒍣 (ša-al-ak-zi /šalkzi/, “knead, mix”), although the semantic connection is weak.
From Latin sulcus.
Words formed from sulk
Words that rhyme with sulk
Questions about sulk
- What does sulk mean?
- Sulk means to express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.
- What is sulk in Hindi?
- Sulk in Hindi is रूसना (rūsnā). See Sulk meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sulk?
- Sulk can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sulk?
- Sulk is pronounced /sʌlk/.
- What is the past tense of sulk?
- The past tense of sulk is sulked.
Words near sulk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sulk (page history and authors); रूसना (Hindi) (page history and authors); रुसणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); روسنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); sulk (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sulk (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sulk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sulk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sulk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.