What's the difference between gloomy and sullen?

Gloomy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Imperfectly illuminated; dismal through obscurity or darkness; dusky; dim; clouded; as, the cavern was gloomy.
  • (superl.) Affected with, or expressing, gloom; melancholy; dejected; as, a gloomy temper or countenance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Analysts at RBS said that on the basis of these gloomy figures, industrial output in the eurozone as a whole looked likely to have declined by about 4% in the final quarter of 2008.
  • (2) On 1 January 1832, he reports that: "The new year to my jaundiced senses bore a most gloomy appearance.
  • (3) It would be a mistake to rush it.” But, while revealing disappointing trading figures for the Christmas period and a gloomy outlook for 2017 , Wolfson said he did not think Brexit jitters were stopping people from shopping: “It is more the fact that incomes are likely to be squeezed.” Next's gloomy 2017 forecast drags down fashion retail shares Read more Wolfson was one of a handful of senior business leaders to openly back Brexit but has said in the past that the referendum vote was about UK independence, not isolation, and the country should be aiming for “an open, global-facing economy”.
  • (4) Sales on the high street were much higher than expected this month, rising at their fastest rate in six years as consumers defied the gloomy economic outlook.
  • (5) He said the fact that the chancellor, George Osborne, had given permission to the Bank of England to pump more economy into the economy in another round of so-called "quantitative easing" – coupled with gloomy employment figures from the US – was evidence of how fragile the economy was.
  • (6) The gloomy feedback from industry has raised the prospect of a triple-dip recession and a further worsening of the government's finances.
  • (7) The Lib Dem cabinet minister said he would "tell it as I see it" as he delivered a gloomy economic forecast, predicting "difficult times" ahead.
  • (8) Microsoft: bitter medicine But the story is gloomy for Microsoft.
  • (9) Now, however, the new administration of Hassan Rouhani is taking steps to open up Iran to foreigners in an effort to improve its international image after the gloomy years under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – and to bring in much-needed foreign currency to an economy reeling from years of sanctions.
  • (10) Thus, the prognosis of CNS granulocytic sarcoma is not uniformly gloomy if treated aggressively by combined modalities.
  • (11) The outlook is gloomy in the light of the potential for widespread disruption of normal social and economic activities.
  • (12) After a bright start to the morning, the day will turn gloomy as the solar wind lashes Britain with energetic particles and an enormous ball of magnetised plasma slams into Earth bringing a few days of geomagnetic storms.
  • (13) Steven Fletcher's return from long-term injury was one of few positives on another gloomy day for travelling Mackems and the Scotland striker levelled the scores with a fine header after the interval, when he had been brought on for a supposedly angry Ji.
  • (14) Britain Chancellor George Osborne is to downgrade his growth forecasts for the UK after a series of gloomy business surveys and sharply declining consumer confidence.
  • (15) With so many gloomy headlines, it would be easy to believe that irreversible runaway climate change is now inevitable .
  • (16) As our ambient lighting is gradually reduced from a high level, subjects use the following words - bright, gloomy, dim and dark.
  • (17) Click here for the Magic in the Moonlight trailer Compared with the gloomy ruminations on ageing and aspiration that characterised the well-received Blue Jasmine, which won Cate Blanchett an Oscar , this is Allen going back to the knockabout farce and blithe May-December couplings that populate his lighter films.
  • (18) The upstairs living room, which I remember from the last time I interviewed her as slightly gloomy, crowded with towers of books and magazines and oppressive paintings and wall hangings, is today brightened by yet more flowers, all in deep shades of orange and red.
  • (19) This portends a gloomy scenario for the poorer populations of Europe in the 1990s.
  • (20) The gloomy outlook for the sector came as the music chain HMV followed camera-supplier Jessops into administration after lengthy battles by both companies to unearth business models that could compete with online retailers.

Sullen


Definition:

  • (a.) Lonely; solitary; desolate.
  • (a.) Gloomy; dismal; foreboding.
  • (a.) Mischievous; malignant; unpropitious.
  • (a.) Gloomily angry and silent; cross; sour; affected with ill humor; morose.
  • (a.) Obstinate; intractable.
  • (a.) Heavy; dull; sluggish.
  • (n.) One who is solitary, or lives alone; a hermit.
  • (n.) Sullen feelings or manners; sulks; moroseness; as, to have the sullens.
  • (v. t.) To make sullen or sluggish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Most defendants in multimillion-euro fraud cases turn up to court ashen-faced and sullen-looking.
  • (2) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (3) The result is a weird kind of dissonance: blogs and op-ed pieces written in London salivate over "the most important byelection in 30 years" and claim – with some justification – that its outcome will have profound consequences for the two coalition parties, while most locals view it all with a sullen detachment.
  • (4) They were instantly swamped by sunlight; more the sullen accused on trial than Her Majesty's front bench.
  • (5) "Even a total stranger could experience the chilling effect of seeing sullen pairs of the Guardia Civil walking the street."
  • (6) In his memoir , Brown’s former aide Damian McBride candidly describes the thrill of having the ear of one of the most powerful men in the land – though he confesses the prime minister would “stare at [him] sullenly for a moment or two, then say: ‘Get me Ed Balls.’” I certainly met plenty of chiefs of staff and spin doctors who jealously guarded their privileged access to a particular politician and their status as that MP’s “vicar on Earth”.
  • (7) Against a backdrop described by the King's Fund thinktank as "deepening pessimism about the ability of the NHS to make ends meet, particularly in 2015-16", many on the health side are sullenly resentful of "their" money going into the BCF.
  • (8) Factor analysis of this brief inventory resulted in eight factors: disorientation, impaired concentration and thinking, paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms, anxiety, sullen inadequacy (restraint depression), hostility, loss of control, giving up.
  • (9) Through a double-glazed window in an adjacent room, a sullen security guard in khaki watches over all.
  • (10) Shortly after midnight Friday, partygoers belted Purple Rain together, a notably moving moment amid a sullen day.
  • (11) That sullen death-stare she perfected as April in Parks & Rec should come in handy somewhere on the dark side, perhaps as a female Sith Lord – a Sith Lady, if you will.
  • (12) If you’re sensing that the Mill is bored, or better yet, indifferent, or better yet, showing all the sullen ardour of a husband obliging himself to make love to his wife in the thick of a carnal indifference, then take your right hand, place it over your left shoulder and give yourself a big old pat on the back.
  • (13) I interviewed G-Unit once (minus the banged-up Tony Yayo) and they were the antithesis of the sullen, aggressive rapper stereotype (although they did turn their noses up at the very idea of letting any of the "British food" at their 5-star hotel pass their lips, and sent their manager out for a McDonalds instead).
  • (14) There are roadblocks manned by sullen-looking teenagers cradling AK-47s, but no meaningful law and order.
  • (15) Behind came a straggling caravan of mules and porters, including a couple of teenage boys who watched the college girls with sullen fascination.
  • (16) McFadden's penalty brought City a point, at which point William Gallas went all precious, attacking an advertising board and sitting sullenly on the pitch after the final whistle.
  • (17) A period as manager of Port Vale, after Stoke had rather sullenly parted company with him, reducing his wages and refusing him complimentary tickets, was ill-starred.
  • (18) It made him look sullen, grumpy and at worst disengaged from his challenger.
  • (19) Obscenity is lecherous and sullen in regard to women and virulent towards men: it may then be interpreted as a mean of struggle against the anxiety of death.
  • (20) Manchester United survived a couple of scares in 2008 at Wigan, but ultimately won 2-0 comfortably, while in 2010 Chelsea romped to an 8-0 victory over Wigan at Stamford Bridge as United sullenly and pointlessly beat Stoke City 4-0 at home.