Word.ws English Dictionary

sullen

Syllables: sul·len/ˈsʌlən/

sullen adjective: having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

Adjective

sullen (comparative sullener, superlative sullenest)

  1. 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;1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
    • And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.1709, Matthew Prior, Pleasure
    Synonyms:
    sulky, morose, broody
  2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
    • a sullen atmosphere
    • Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. Sluggish; slow.
    • The larger [stream] was placid, and even sullen, in its course.1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London...
    • When ends life's transient dream, / when death’s cold, sullen stream / shall o'er me roll,1830, Ray Palmer, “My Faith Looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary”
  4. (obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
    • Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, / They threaten every Fortune mixt with mine.1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC, (please specify the page number)
    • she meets again / The savage murderer's sullen gaze,1835, John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone
  5. (obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.
    • Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them.a. 1694, John Tillotson, Imprudence of Atheism

Noun

sullen (plural sullens)

  1. (archaic) 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.c. 1377, William Langland, Piers Plowman, lines 7830–7835
  2. (in plural) Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.
    • And let them die that age and sullens have;1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
    • If she be not sick of the sullens, I see not the least infirmity in her.1632, Philip Massinger, “Act III. Scene IV.”, in The Emperor of the East
    Synonyms:
    glumps, mope

Verb

sullen (third-person singular simple present sullens, present participle sullening, simple past and past participle sullened)

  1. (obsolete) 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.c. 1620, Owen Feltham, “XLVIII. Of Idleness.”, in Resolves, Divine, Moral, and Political; republished as Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political, London: Whittaker & Co, 1840, page 128

sullen meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

sullen in Tamil

உம்மணாமூஞ்சி, ஊமணாமூஞ்சி

sullen in Urdu

کشیدہ, مکدر

sullen in Bengali

বিষণ্ণ, রাগী ও চুপচাপ

sullen in Malayalam

മുഖം കറുത്ത, പ്രസാദാത്മകതയില്ലാത്ത, ഇരുണ്ട, മങ്ങിയ
More languagesFewer languages
sullen in Kannada
ಉದ್ವಿಗ್ನ, ಅಪ್ರಸನ್ನ, ಮುನಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ, ಗುರುಗುಮ್ಮೆನ್ನುವ

Examples of sullen in a sentence

  • No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, / The dreaded East is all the wind that blows.1714, Alexander Pope, “Canto 4”, in The Rape of the Lock:
  • [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.1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter 7, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd...

All 21 example sentences with sullen

Synonyms of sullen

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sullen

Forms of sullen

Adjective
comparativesullener
superlativesullenest
Noun
pluralsullens
Verb
third-person singular presentsullens
present participlesullening
past participlesullened
pastsullened

Origin of sullen

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.

Words formed from sullen

Words that rhyme with sullen

Questions about sullen

What does sullen mean?
Sullen means having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
What is sullen in Tamil?
Sullen in Tamil is உம்மணாமூஞ்சி, ஊமணாமூஞ்சி. See Sullen meaning in Tamil.
How do you use sullen in a sentence?
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows, / The dreaded East is all the wind that blows.
What part of speech is sullen?
Sullen can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sullen?
Sullen is pronounced /ˈsʌlən/.

Words near sullen in the dictionary

  1. sullages
  2. Sullana
  3. Sullane
  4. sullas
  5. sulled
  6. sullen
  7. sullener
  8. sullenest
  9. Sullenger
  10. Sullengers
  11. sullenly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sullen (page history and authors); sullen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sullen (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sullen (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sullen (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sullen (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sullen.ogg.

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