showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd"
Used in a Sentence
sullen
How to use sullen in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for sullen.
Editorial note
For the most part, kids would give a sullen look and then listen.
Examples15
Definitions2
Parts of speech1
Quick take
showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of sullen gathered in one view.
darkened by clouds; "a heavy sky"
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for sullen.
adjective
showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd"
See also: dark, dour, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour
adjective
darkened by clouds; "a heavy sky"
See also: heavy, lowering, threatening
Example sentences
For the most part, kids would give a sullen look and then listen.
Thus they get exactly what they pay for; sullen workers who do the bare minimum not to get fired.
On the other hand, it's good to have anyone step in to lend a hand, instead of standing back like sullen sheep.
It's not productive or helpful to say that, so I simply type bundle exec rake balls and scratch my balls in sullen silence.
If a large chunk of people burn out or get bored after four years, a five year vesting period would create sullen, unproductive boat anchors.
Asking for a phone call, and being ignored. Asking if I was arrested, and being ignored. Asking what right they have to keep me, and having them smirk and say, "because I'm on this side, and you're on that side".When I filed a complaint, the sargeant assigned to the case was sullen, bored.
Start from scratch and probably make elementary blunders, leading to sullen participants?
Perhaps the winner will be a sullen, rebellious child of overbearing rich parents... who rather than showing up that night decides to crash daddy's car.
However I am getting annoyed by my contacts who are endorsing my skils without my asking them and who then expect me to do the same for them and get all sullen when I don't.
So long as the 'stoic' lack of words isn't an obvious-to-all sullen pout, I can't think of a reason anyone would react negatively to someone who fronts satisfaction in a group setting.
Take up the White Man's burdenSend forth the best ye breedGo bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wildYour new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.
In reality, this man of privilege bounds into the store on a cloud of positivity, only to be met by the sullen face behind the counter, 12 hours into a double shift on a day that she wasn't even supposed to be here.
I looked through it, and the takeaway is that he was a sullen, jealous coward his whole life--but sufficiently introspective to write 137 pages about that life in which almost nothing happened, and nothing at all happened that he himself instigated.
Have you ever tried packing up a baby, a toddler, and a sullen/rebellious pre-teen and taken them on the bus for two hours each way to fill out paperwork that is so far beyond your comprehension level that it may as well be in a foreign language?
Whether the superior outcomes for those thus compelled outweighs the poorer outcomes and massively less pleasant experience of those forced to share classrooms and teacher attention with sullen youth there under pain of imprisonment is aquestion to be dealt with in ones own head.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use sullen in a sentence?
For the most part, kids would give a sullen look and then listen.
What does sullen mean?
showing a brooding ill humor; "a dark scowl"; "the proverbially dour New England Puritan"; "a glum, hopeless shrug"; "he sat in moody silence"; "a morose and unsociable manner"; "a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius"- Bruce Bliven; "a sour temper"; "a sullen crowd"
What part of speech is sullen?
sullen is commonly used as adjective.