Sul″len (?), a. [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.] 1. Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14).
2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. Milton.
Solemn hymns so sullen dirges change. Shak.
3. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. Dryden.
4. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose.
And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. Prior.
5. Obstinate; intractable.
Things are as sullen as we are. Tillotson.
6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. “The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course.” Sir W. Scott.
Syn. — Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish; fretful; ill-humored; petulant; gloomy; malign; intractable. — 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.