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Desolate vs Sullen - What's the difference?

desolate | sullen |

As adjectives the difference between desolate and sullen

is that desolate is deserted and devoid of inhabitants while sullen is having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

As a verb desolate

is to deprive of inhabitants.

As a noun sullen is

(obsolete) one who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.

desolate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
  • a desolate''' isle; a '''desolate''' wilderness; a '''desolate house
  • * Bible, Jer. ix. 11
  • I will make Jerusalem a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate , without an inhabitant.
  • * Tennyson
  • And the silvery marish flowers that throng / The desolate creeks and pools among.
  • Barren and lifeless.
  • Made unfit for habitation or use; laid waste; neglected; destroyed.
  • desolate altars
  • Dismal or dreary.
  • Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
  • He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.
  • * Keble
  • voice of the poor and desolate

    Verb

    (desolat)
  • To deprive of inhabitants.
  • To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
  • To abandon or forsake something.
  • To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
  • 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