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Brooding vs Sullen - What's the difference?

brooding | sullen |

As adjectives the difference between brooding and sullen

is that brooding is broody; incubating eggs by sitting on them while sullen is having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

As nouns the difference between brooding and sullen

is that brooding is a spell of brooding; the time when someone broods while sullen is one who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

As a verb brooding

is present participle of lang=en.

brooding

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (of a bird) Broody; incubating eggs by sitting on them.
    • A brooding hen can be aggressive.
  • Deeply or seriously thoughtful.
    • You like T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"? You must be so brooding and deep .

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A spell of brooding; the time when someone broods.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=June 22, author=Jon Caramanica, title=Once-Dreamy Indie Rockers, Masking Hurt With High-Gloss Sheen, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=The lyrics are different: gone are the dreamy, un-self-conscious proclamations of affection from the EP (which was reissued with additional tracks), replaced with vividly dark broodings , thick with doubt and fear.}}

    sullen

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
  • * Prior
    • And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.
  • Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
  • * 1593 , , IV. v. 88:
    • Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
    (Milton)
  • Sluggish; slow.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The larger stream was placid, and even sullen , in its course.
  • (obsolete) Lonely; solitary; desolate.
  • (obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
  • * Dryden
    • Such sullen planets at my birth did shine.
  • (obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.
  • * Tillotson
    • Things are as sullen as we are.

    Synonyms

    * sulky, morose

    Antonyms

    * cheerful * content * lighthearted * pleased

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
    • (Piers Plowman)
  • Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.
    • to have the sullens
  • * 1593 , , II. i. 139:
    • And let them die that age and sullens have;
    English adjectives ending in -en