What's the difference between somber and sullen?

Somber


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Alt. of Sombre
  • (a.) Alt. of Sombre
  • (n.) Alt. of Sombre

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Melanomas developed on giant pigmented naevi had a particularly somber prognosis: death occurred within 6, 7 and 3 months respectively in the 3 cases observed.
  • (2) Uncompleted mourning and the depression and somber states of mind it created were absorbed by their children from birth on.
  • (3) In these very old people with very somber prognosis, anemia was corrected by surgery without recurrence after 8 and 10 months respectively.
  • (4) If Trump seems strangely incapable of consistency except in the matter of walling out and deporting immigrants, somber Ted Cruz is lurking nearby to alarm us with his ideological purity.
  • (5) Although most readers consider medical publications to be somber and somnifacient, a critical eye will discover a remarkable array of absurdities and assorted other oddities, totally unintended by the authors.
  • (6) Almost every report on macular degeneration begins with a somber reminder that macular degeneration is the single most common cause of blindness in the elderly in the United States and Europe.
  • (7) 'A lot of the movements to combat violence against women are somber.
  • (8) Coronary lesions with atheromatous deposits occurring in later childhood characterize homozygous type IIa hypercholesterolaemia and condition the somber prognosis of a disease which affects one subject in a million.
  • (9) The statement read: It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust.
  • (10) The day after the election, I walked around the camp and it was really somber,” said Kandi Mossett, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes who has been camping at Standing Rock since mid-August.
  • (11) The mood was somber, and many people wiped away tears.
  • (12) She suggests that the question for anyone considering standing for the US presidency should be: “What’s your vision for America?” Then she supplies her own answer: “The challenge is to lead in a way that unites us again and renews the American Dream … Ultimately, what happens in 2016 should be about what kind of future Americans want for themselves and their children – and grandchildren.” The start of the book is more somber.
  • (13) Since President Barack Obama took office, there have been at least 16 major mass shootings, after which he has offered somber words of condolence and called for national healing.
  • (14) In 1811 Mary Reynolds, a somber Pennsylvania spinster, awoke from a prolonged sleep as a new personality.
  • (15) This discussion forms the basis of a review of the worldwide literature, but stresses two problems which determine the prognosis: that of diagnosis, which in the majority of cases is very late, and that of their prognosis, which remains somber because of their tendency to metastasize by blood-borne spread and that of locoregional recurrences.
  • (16) In a strong but somber voice, McDonnell told the judge before sentencing that he was “a heartbroken and humbled man” and that he holds himself accountable.
  • (17) In other essays, she tries to educate a caddish boyfriend by sharing wisdom from He’s Just Not That Into You , and unexpectedly surrenders to the madness of wedding gown shopping, in which “dresses are brought out from back rooms with somber reverence, like the Torah being revealed from the ark”.
  • (18) She did not answer a question about whether Trump did not want to offend people, saying only: “It was our honor to issue a statement in remembrance of this important day.” In its original statement, the White House said: “It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust .
  • (19) At the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 369 hall in Louisville, where supporters had hoped to celebrate a Grimes win, the mood quickly turned somber: one minute, a few young employees were playing stickball while waiting for the party to start, and the next the hall was empty, as the few people who had arrived before the race was called went up to the war room to commiserate and watch the results of the statehouse races.
  • (20) Despite significant advances in many areas, the morbidity and mortality statistics remain as somber reminders of the devastation attributed to this epidemic.

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.