Sullen vs Grouchy - What's the difference?
sullen | grouchy |
Having a brooding ill temper; sulky.
* Prior
Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
* 1593 , , IV. v. 88:
Sluggish; slow.
* Sir Walter Scott
(obsolete) Lonely; solitary; desolate.
(obsolete) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
* Dryden
(obsolete) Obstinate; intractable.
* Tillotson
(obsolete) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness.
* 1593 , , II. i. 139:
Irritable; easily upset; angry; tending to complain.
* 1911 , , Chapter III,
* 1922 , , Chapter XXXI,
* 1922 , Henry William Fischer, , Author's Preface,
As adjectives the difference between sullen and grouchy
is that sullen is having a brooding ill temper; sulky while grouchy is irritable; easily upset; angry; tending to complain.As a noun sullen
is (obsolete) one who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.sullen
English
Adjective
(er)- And sullen I forsook the imperfect feast.
- Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
- (Milton)
- The larger stream was placid, and even sullen , in its course.
- Such sullen planets at my birth did shine.
- Things are as sullen as we are.
Synonyms
* sulky, moroseAntonyms
* cheerful * content * lighthearted * pleasedNoun
(en noun)- (Piers Plowman)
- to have the sullens
- And let them die that age and sullens have;
grouchy
English
Adjective
(er)- His boss gets grouchy when deadlines draw near.
- Not that young Pat had a nasty temper, or was grouchy as his father had feared.
- He went in to mumble that he was "sorry, didn't mean to be grouchy ," and to inquire as to her interest in movies.
- In Berlin I once heard Susie Clemens—ill-fated, talented girl, who died so young—say to her father: "Grouchy again! They do say that you can be funny when company is around—too bad that you don't consider Henry Fisher company."