Sullen

a. [O. Eng. solein, solain, lonely, sullen, Lat. as if solanus, from solus, alone; Pr. solan, solitary.] 1. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding. “Night with her sullen wings.” Milton. Solemn hymns to sullen dirges change. Shak. 2. Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious. Such sullen planets at my birth did shine. Dryden. 3. Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor. And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast. Prior. 4. Obstinate; intractable. Things are as sullen as we are. Tillotson. 5. Heavy; dull; sluggish. The larger stream was placid, and even sullen, in its course. W. Scott. Syn. — Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured. — SULLEN, SULKY. “If it be asked what is the difference between these words, I would answer, that 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. The one has a malignancy in its threatened danger; the other, an obstinate averseness to pleasure. Thus we are in a sullen mood, and in a sulky fit; men and women are said to be sullen, and children sulky; sullenness may be predicated of inanimate objects, sulkiness only of such as are animated.” Walker. No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows; The dreadful east is all the wind that blows. Pope.