sullen
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L340928 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈsʌlən/
adj
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.
- 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.”
- Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
“a sullen atmosphere”
“Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;”
- 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,”
- 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,”
- Obstinate; intractable.
“Things are as sullen as we are, and will be what they are whatever we think of them.”
noun
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.
- 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.”
- 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.”
verb
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.
- 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.”