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Sullen vs Stern - What's the difference?

sullen | stern | Related terms |

Sullen is a related term of stern.


As nouns the difference between sullen and stern

is that sullen is (obsolete) one who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit while stern is a star; a small luminous dot that can be seen on the night sky.

As an adjective sullen

is having a brooding ill temper; sulky.

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

    stern

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) stern, sterne, sturne, from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
  • * (John Dryden)
    • stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.}}
  • Grim and forbidding in appearance.
  • * (William Wordsworth)
    • these barren rocks, your stern inheritance

    Etymology 2

    Most likely from (etyl) , from the same Germanic root.

    Noun

    (wikipedia stern) (en noun)
  • (nautical) The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
  • * , chapter=7
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Old Applegate, in the stern', just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the ' stern .}}
  • (figurative) The post of management or direction.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • and sit chiefest stern of public weal
  • The hinder part of anything.
    • (Spenser)
  • The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
    • Antonyms
    * bow
    Derived terms
    * from stem to stern * sternpost
    See also
    * keel

    Etymology 3

    (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bird, the black tern.

    • Anagrams

    * * * * ---- ==Mòcheno==

    Noun

    (m)
  • (l) (luminous dot appearing in the night sky)

    • References

    *