Sul"len , v. t. To make sullen or sluggish. [Obs.]
Sullens the whole body with . . . laziness.
Feltham.
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.
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.
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