All 11 Uses
sullen
in
Alias Grace
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- I am of a sullen disposition with a quarrelsome temper…
Chpt 3 *sullen = unhappy and withdrawn
- Grace Marks was … a pretty girl, and very smart about her work, but of a silent, sullen temper.
Chpt 8
- Sullen, brutish, vengeful; a mind that exists at a sub-rational level, yet cunning, slippery and evasive.†
Chpt 4
- It is uncomfortable watching another person eat, and listening to them as well, especially if they have a tendency to guzzle; but McDermott did not seem inclined to conversation, having reverted to a sullen mood; so I asked him whether he enjoyed dancing.†
Chpt 7
- Grace was sullen and proud, and not very easily won over to my purpose; but in order to win her liking, if possible, I gave a ready ear to all her discontented repinings.†
Chpt 8
- Later that week, McDermott came into the kitchen for the midday dinner with a long and sullen face.†
Chpt 8
- There was no breeze moving anywhere, and the air was damp, and the sky had covered over with clouds of a sullen yellowish grey, but bright behind them, like heated metal; and it had a blank and foreboding look to it.†
Chpt 8
- McDermott was cleaning the shoes; he'd been sullen during our supper, and said why couldn't we have proper cooked food, like the steaks with new peas the others had eaten, and I said new peas did not grow on trees, and he ought to know who would have the first choice of them, as there had only been enough for two; and in any case I was Mr. Kinnear's servant, not his; and he said that if I was his I would not last long, as I was such a foul-tempered witch, and the only cure for me was the end of a belt; and I said ill words butter no parsnips.†
Chpt 8
- McDermott was sullen and silent, but that was no change; and then Nancy and I went to bed together, as was always the case when Mr. Kinnear was away, on account of her fear of burglars; and she suspected nothing.†
Chpt 9
- Nancy was very gay and light-hearted, and did not scold at all, or not as much as usual; and even McDermott was less sullen, in the morning, as I told him if he went around with such a hangdog face then Nancy was sure to suspect he was up to no good.†
Chpt 9
- The newspapers said he showed sullen doggedness and reckless defiance, which was their way of putting it, I suppose.†
Chpt 11
Definitions:
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(1)
(sullen as in: a sullen mood) being unhappy (and often withdrawn)
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(2)
(sullen as in: a sullen sky) darkened by clouds; or the color of a gloomy sky
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(3)
(sullen as in: sullen heat) unpleasant
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(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Sullen can also be used figuratively. For example, "A sullen economic landscape" is one that does not look hopeful.