What's the difference between pleased and sullen?

Pleased


Definition:

  • (imp. & p. p.) of Please
  • (a.) Experiencing pleasure.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I can see you use humour as a defence mechanism, so in return I could just tell you that if he's massively rich or famous and you've decided you'll put up with it to please him, you'll eventually discover it's not worth it.
  • (2) We are pleased to see the process moving forward and look forward to its resolution,” a Target spokeswoman, Molly Snyder, said in an emailed statement.
  • (3) The prerequisite for all champions is the refusal to cave in, so City's equaliser with only three minutes remaining was pleasing.
  • (4) When Vladimir Putin kicks back on New Year's Eve with a glass of Russian-made champagne, and reflects on the year behind him, he is likely to feel rather pleased with himself at the way his foreign policy initiatives have gone in 2013.
  • (5) Chikavu Nyirenda, a leading political analyst, said: "She neglected to look at the local scene but spent a lot of time to please the west and promote herself."
  • (6) 3.14pm BST 14 mins: It's quite a pleasing thing that, some 22 years after the passback rule was put in place, fans still applaud a player heading the ball back to the keeper.
  • (7) I am pleased with that but disappointed with the result.
  • (8) Speaking about the player, who scored crucial goals for England during qualification for the 2014 World Cup, Hodgson said: “Andros was unlucky to lose his place in the squad when he wasn’t getting a regular game and he’s gone to Newcastle, got a regular game, and done very well there.” Expressing his delight in being selected, Townsend tweeted: “Huge honour to be named in provisional England squad for the euros ... Will give my all over next few weeks to try to make final squad!” Hodgson also declared himself pleased to include Jordan Henderson, who returned to action for Liverpool in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion having been out since early April with damaged knee ligaments.
  • (9) This is a very nice drug and I’m sure Merck are feeling very pleased with themselves.” Matt Kennedy, who led the trial at Merck, said: “Today there are very limited therapeutic options available for people with Alzheimer’s disease, and those that exist provide only short-term improvement to the cognitive and functional symptoms.
  • (10) And he pleased the audience with an acknowledgement that social work is a tough job and social workers only human.
  • (11) [The prime minister] is very pleased we’ve been able to secure this arrangement.
  • (12) In the email King sets out ways jobcentre staff can catch out claimants, saying: "You should consider every doubt – if you are unsure then please conference with me."
  • (13) Angela Merkel says she's very pleased to accept the invitation to Davos, at a time when global economic growth is modest.
  • (14) Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Charles Antaki, he's here all week, try the Imodium.
  • (15) "This has been a challenging time for the BMJ but I am very pleased the panel has taken the view that we acted appropriately," said BMJ editor in chief, Dr Fiona Godlee.
  • (16) Two British throwers up there, it's unheard of, I'm pleased with where the sport's going."
  • (17) • If you have experiences relating to this story that you would like to share, please email us in confidence at inequality.project@theguardian.com
  • (18) As the embattled NHS chief executive was grilled in the televised hearing, committee member Valerie Vaz told him: "Please don't feel that this is a trial."
  • (19) Please, forgive me,” Choi Soon-sil, a cult leader’s daughter with a decades-long connection to Park, said through tears inside the Seoul prosecutor’s building, according to Yonhap news agency.
  • (20) "Really, really pleased," said the world silver medallist.

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.