Things are as sullen as we are.
Tillotson.
6. Heavy; dull; sluggish. "The larger stream was placid, and even
sullen, in its course." Sir W. Scott.
Syn. -- Sulky; sour; cross; ill-natured; morose; peevish; fretful;
ill-humored; petulant; gloomy; malign; intractable. -- 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.
Sul"len, n. 1. One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit. [Obs.]
Piers Plowman.
2. pl. Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the
sullens. [Obs.] Shak.