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.
[Obs.]
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.
© Webster 1913.
Sul"len, n.
1.
One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
[Obs.]
Piers Plowman.
2. pl.
Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens.
[Obs.]
Shak.
© Webster 1913.
Sul"len, v. t.
To make sullen or sluggish.
[Obs.]
Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness.
Feltham.
© Webster 1913.