Sul·len a.
 1. Lonely; solitary; desolate. [Obs.]
 2. Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
    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.”
 Syn: -- Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish; fretful; ill-humored; petulant; gloomy; malign; intractable.
 Usage: 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.


 sullenness
      n 1: a gloomy ill-tempered feeling [syn: moroseness, glumness]
      2: a sullen moody resentful disposition [syn: sulkiness, moroseness,
          sourness]