Word.ws English Dictionary

sulky

/ˈsʌlki/

sulky adjective: silent and withdrawn after being upset.

Adjective

sulky (comparative sulkier, superlative sulkiest)

  1. (derogatory, often) silent and withdrawn after being upset
    • the sulky child
    • Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and would only say, “I’m older than you, and must know better.” And this Alice would not allow, without knowing how old it was, and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was no more to be said.1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    Synonyms:
    sullen, morose

Noun

sulky (plural sulkies)

  1. A light, two-wheeled, horse-drawn cart used in harness racing.
  2. Any carriage seating only the driver.

Proper noun capitalized: Sulky

Sulky

  1. A town in the City of Ballarat and the Shire of Hepburn, central western Victoria, Australia.

sulky meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

sulky in Tamil

a sulky, dolorous looking person; crybaby
அழுமூஞ்சி aḻumūñci

sulky in Urdu

اکل کھرا, بدمزاج, تیکھا

sulky in Bengali

অভিমানী, গোমড়া

sulky in Malayalam

surly, sullen, moping
ദുർമ്മുഖം കാട്ടുന്ന, വെറുപ്പുകാട്ടുന്ന, മുഷിപ്പുകാട്ടുന്ന, മ്ലാനമായ, വിഷണ്ണമായ, ഖിന്നതയുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
sulky in Arabic
عَبُوس ʕabūs, جَهِيم jahīm, مُتَجَهِّم mutajahhim

Synonyms of sulky

Forms of sulky

Adjective
comparativesulkier
superlativesulkiest
Noun
pluralsulkies

Origin of sulky

See sulk. The vehicle is so called as it obliges the rider to be alone, as though sulking.

Words formed from sulky

Questions about sulky

What does sulky mean?
Sulky means silent and withdrawn after being upset.
What is sulky in Tamil?
Sulky in Tamil is அழுமூஞ்சி (aḻumūñci). See Sulky meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sulky?
Sulky can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sulky?
Sulky is pronounced /ˈsʌlki/.

Words near sulky in the dictionary

  1. Sulkowski
  2. Sulkowskis
  3. sulkpot
  4. sulkpots
  5. sulks
  6. sulky
  7. sull
  8. sull up
  9. sulla
  10. sullabub
  11. sullabubs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sulky (page history and authors); Sulky (page history and authors); அழுமூஞ்சி (Tamil) (page history and authors); sulky (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sulky (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sulky (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sulky.wav.

Cite this entry: “sulky.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sulky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.