[f. SULK v.2]
1. pl. A state of ill-humor or resentment marked by obstinate silence or aloofness from society. Often with the and in phr. in the sulks (occas. in one’s sulks); also to take (the) sulks (Sc.), to turn sulky.
1804. J. Grahame, Sabbath (1839), 15/2. A child of about ten months old took sulks, and would not eat.
1818. Todd, s.v., We use also, as a colloquial terin, to be in the sulks; which formerly was, in the sullens.
1824. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, I. 177. A fit of the sulks.
1831. Greville, Mem., 8 Dec. (1874), II. 224. I never had the advantage of seeing the Chancellor before in his sulks.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, xxvii. Her pretty sulks and peevishness.
1885. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxxxi. 2. The child … frets and worries,… or sinks into sulks.
1890. D. Davidson, Mem. Long Life, iv. 93. Ram Bukhs took the sulks.
1894. W. E. Norris, St. Ann’s, II. 208. When you are tired of being in the sulks, let me know.
b. sing. A fit of sulking; the action of sulking.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, I. xiii. Mrs. Cadurcis remained alone in a savage sulk.
1888. John Rae, in Contemp. Rev., LIV. 383. Rodbertus had lived for a quarter of a century in a political sulk against the Hohenzollerns.
1898. Daily News, 20 June, 4/7. To try and force those proposals by a policy of sulk.
2. A person who sulks (rare); an obstinate horse (dial.)
1883. Ld. R. Gower, Reminisc., II. xxiv. 125. If one reads away from the others, one appears to avoid the rest and is considered a sulk.
1888. Berks. Gloss., Zulk, a term applied to a horse that will not try to do what is required of him.
