sullen

Meaning

Adj

1. Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
3. Sluggish; slow.
4. (obsolete) Lonely; solitary; desolate.
5. (obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
6. (obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.

Noun

1. (obsolete) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
2. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.

Synonyms

morose

sulky

gloomy

glum

surly

dark

moody

sour

dour

bleak

dull

sad

☹️

lowering

dismal

saturnine

brutal

cross

disagreeable

glowering

gruff

grumpy

harsh

rough

serious

unkind

unpleasant

threatening

offended

joyless

peevish

dreary

angry

😠

depressed

ill-tempered

cheerless

grim

mirthless

somber

heavy

in a bad mood

obscure

pettish

bad-tempered

lugubrious

pout

😡

melancholic

melancholy

crabbed

frowning

😦

gaunt

uncommunicative

unfriendly

miserable

unsmiling

dim

shy

silent

🔇

irascible

wry

irritable

malcontent

menacing

minacious

minatory

awkward

astringent

mournful

murky

nasty

ominous

petulant

pitch-black

preoccupied

recalcitrant

chumpish

rude

sable

saddened

afflicted

scowling

grum

shrewish

sinister

sluggish

solemn

sombre

sore

acidic

splenetic

stern

stodgy

strained

sulking

acid

sunless

acerbic

tart

testy

unhappy

☹️

splenish

unloving

tetric

unsociable

untoward

vinegary

vixenish

waspish

wayward

glooming

mirky

slow-moving

vinegarish

bloody-minded

blue

boring

acerb

cantankerous

captious

churlish

clouded

cloudy

☁️

cranky

low spirited

bland

darkling

deep

dejected

desolate

be stern

disconsolate

blackened

dispirited

displeased

distasteful

disturbed

black

bitter

embarrassed

fretful

baneful

illtempered

baleful

grouching

grouchy

gloomful

sour-tasting

tenebrious

horrible

ill-humored

ill-humoured

imminent

impendent

impending

Hyphenated as

sul‧len

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsʌlən/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: solein

In summary

From Middle English solein, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.