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sullen

sullen is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 8 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. Milton. Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. Shak.
  2. 2.Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. Dryden.
  3. 3.Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose. And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. Prior.
  4. 4.Obstinate; intractable. Things are as sullen as we are. Tillotson.
  5. 5.Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course." Sir W. Scott. -- Sullen, Sulky. Both sullen and sulky show themselves in the demeanor. Sullenness seems to be an habitual sulkiness, and sulkiness a temporary sullenness. The former may be an innate disposition; the latter, a disposition occasioned by recent injury. Thus we are in a sullen mood, and in a sulky fit. No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows; The dreaded east is all the wind that blows. Pope. -- Sul"len*ly, adv. -- Sul"len*ness, n.
  6. 6.One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.
  7. 7.pl. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens. [Obs.] Shak.
  8. 8.To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.] Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness. Feltham.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Synonyms (Webster's 1913)

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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