Sample Sentences for
sullen
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

sullen as in:  a sullen mood

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She changed from a happy, outgoing child to sullen teenager.
sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
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    A sullen crowd watched the execution.
    sullen = unhappy
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    They were sullen-looking, sleepy-eyed men who seemed unused to late hours.  (source)
    sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
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    She scowled down at the ground in sullen fury.  (source)
    sullen = unhappy
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
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    I had always pictured murderers as being mopey and sullen.  (source)
    sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
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    He crossed the street sullenly then, his hands jammed in his pockets.  (source)
    sullenly = in an unhappy and withdrawn manner
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    She paused and her face lost its sullenness and grew interested.  (source)
    sullenness = appearance of a bad mood
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    Whereas when you open your mouth, you come across more as sullen and hostile.  (source)
    sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
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    Prince Brat sat sullenly on a pile of moldy bed straw.  (source)
    sullenly = showing a gloomy or bad mood
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    "I think you might have warned me," returned the other, with a touch of sullenness.†  (source)
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    After three days of sullen looks and stubborn silence, everything was back to normal.  (source)
    sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
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    I leaned back next to him sullenly.  (source)
    sullenly = showing a gloomy or bad mood
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    He glowered at me in the darkness, an impotent sullenness to his anger.†  (source)
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    He looked down shamefully at the sullen sight of Liesel's socks.  (source)
    sullen = causing unhappiness
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sullen as in:  a sullen sky

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The town looked more depressing than normal under the sullen sky.
sullen = darkened by clouds
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    She rode off under a sullen sky.
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    They were dark things, black things: silhouettes of children on a gray field; black slow river; black tilting houses; black scratches of birds in a sullen sky.  (source)
    sullen = dark (gloomy)
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    His rounded helm gleamed a sullen red, and a pale pink cloak streamed from his shoulders.  (source)
    sullen = dark or gloomy
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Show 10 more with 2 word variations
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    I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lustreless moon.  (source)
    sullen = dark & cloudy
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    ...and rivers that poured out of echoing gorges to plunge sullenly into black depths.  (source)
    sullenly = in a gloomy manner (darkly)
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    Beyond the edge of the fields the sullen haze hung over earth and sky alike.  (source)
    sullen = gloomy (dark and unpleasant looking)
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    A slight wind picked up and made the trees that grew in sullen clusters along the ridge sway menacingly.  (source)
    sullen = dark (gloomy)
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    She remembered Nan telling how the stone had melted and flowed like candlewax down the steps and in the windows, glowing a sullen searing red as it sought out Harren where he hid.  (source)
    sullen = dark and unpleasant
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    They stood watching the pale gray flakes sift down out of the sullen murk.  (source)
    sullen = gloomy (with little sunlight)
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    Ahead, the night was a sullen red.  (source)
    sullen = dark or gloomy
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    A tall gantry crane against the sullen sky.  (source)
    sullen = gloomy (without much sunshine)
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    The open sky beyond where in the distance the sullen sea lagged and shifted.  (source)
    sullen = darkened by clouds
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    And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off.  (source)
    sullen = dark (gloomy)
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sullen as in:  sullen heat

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She slept poorly in the sullen heat.
sullen = unpleasant
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    The sullen humidity saps my energy.
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    The walls rang with the sound of hammers, and burly men in leather aprons stood sweating in the sullen heat as they bent over bellows and anvils.  (source)
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    Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night.  (source)
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Show 8 more with 2 word variations
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    Go venture shipwreck on the sullen coasts Where blackamoors make captive Christian men;  (source)
    sullen = unpleasant or unhappy
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    The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice.  (source)
    sullenly = unpleasant
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    The sullen wet heat of Volantis sapped his strength and left him feeling dirty.  (source)
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    Thomas, Archbishop, leave us, leave us, leave sullen Dover, and set sail for France, Thomas our Archbishop still our Archbishop even in France.  (source)
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    Another poked at a sullen fire that was giving off more smoke than heat.  (source)
    sullen = unpleasant; or slow-burning
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    The big iron brazier was glowing red, filling the room with a sullen suffocating heat.  (source)
    sullen = unpleasant
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    Ahead loomed the Great Sept of Baelor, with its magnificent dome and seven shining towers, but between her and the marble steps lay a sullen sea of humanity, brown and ragged and unwashed.  (source)
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    Was it Mormont she was angry with, or this city with its sullen heat, its stinks and sweats and crumbling bricks?  (source)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 1 with this contextual meaning
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He remembered the sullen orange glow of the coals in the iron dragon's mouth.  (source)
sullen = slow-burning
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