Sample sentences for SULLEN - verbalworkout.com

2 meanings

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1 —as in:
a sullen mood

Definition

being unhappy and withdrawn

She changed from a happy, outgoing child to sullen teenager.

sullen = unhappy and withdrawn

Other Uses (with this meaning)

A sullen crowd watched the execution.

sullen = unhappy

She paused and her face lost its sullenness and grew interested.
John Steinbeck -- Of Mice and Men

sullenness = appearance of a bad mood

(Editor's note: 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.)

Peter returned to being sullen, refusing to talk.
Ben Mikaeslen -- Touching Spirit Bear

sullen = showing a gloomy or bad mood (often by not interacting with others in a friendly way)

Connie's eyes were sullen.
John Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath

sullen = showing a gloomy or bad mood

The retreat was orderly, wet and sullen. In the night, going slowly along the crowded roads we...
Ernest Hemingway -- A Farewell to Arms

sullen = unhappy (or possibly gloomy or sluggish)

But I stood there sullen and silent with my eyes downcast,
David Almond -- Kit's Wilderness

sullen = showing a gloomy or bad mood

I watch Ruby trudge sullenly through the four-o'clock show, and I wonder: What will happen if I fail?
Katherine Applegate -- The One and Only Ivan

sullenly = unhappily

Not a word more would he say, but sat in his implacable sullenness as indifferent to me as though I had not been in the room at all.
Bram Stoker -- Dracula

sullenness = state of unhappiness and withdrawal

(Editor's note: 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.)

One of the three sat with his head down in sullen disgust.
Elizabeth George Speare -- The Witch of Blackbird Pond

sullen = unhappy and withdrawn

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
a sullen sky

Definition

darkened by clouds; or the color of a gloomy sky

The town looked more depressing than normal under the sullen sky.

sullen = darkened by clouds

Other Uses (with this meaning)

She road off under a sullen sky.

sullen = darkened by clouds

She looked up at a sullen sky.

sullen = darkened by clouds

A slight wind picked up and made the trees that grew in sullen clusters along the ridge sway menacingly.
Walter Dean Myers -- Fallen Angels

sullen = dark (gloomy)

Beyond the edge of the fields the sullen haze hung over earth and sky alike.
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road

sullen = gloomy (dark and unpleasant looking)

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.
F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby

sullen = dark & cloudy

The open sky beyond where in the distance the sullen sea lagged and shifted.
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road

sullen = darkened by clouds

A tall gantry crane against the sullen sky.
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road

sullen = gloomy (without much sunshine)

They stood watching the pale gray flakes sift down out of the sullen murk.
Cormac McCarthy -- The Road

sullen = gloomy (with little sunlight)

...and rivers that poured out of echoing gorges to plunge sullenly into black depths.
C.S. Lewis -- The Silver Chair

sullenly = in a gloomy manner (darkly)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Less commonly:

Sullen can also be used figuratively. For example, "A sullen economic landscape" is one that does not look hopeful.

Exceedingly rarely, sullen can refer to something that moves slowly — as in "a sullen river".

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