adv. [f. SULLEN a. + -LY2.] In a sullen manner.
1. With gloomy or morose ill-humor.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. xi. § 15. 434. If any … sullenly say, with Judas Iscariot, To what purpose is this wast?
1668. Dryden, Secr. Love, III. While jealous pow’r does sullenly o’re spy.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 393. His book, Well chosen, and not sullenly perus’d In selfish silence, but imparted oft.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xvii. ‘Give me meat and drink,’ he answered sullenly.
1879. Spectator, 13 Sept., 1148. That if the Viceroy were only sufficiently persistent, Afghans, like Turks, would sullenly give way.
2. With somber or gloomy aspect; with a dull or dismal sound.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. x. (1912), 402. The colours for the grounde were so well chosen, neither sullenly darke, nor glaringly lightsome.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, li. The wind … groaned sullenly among the lofty branches above.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 295. The volcanic fires … smoulder sullenly at the present day.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xiv. 93. The clouds … sailed sullenly from the west.
1898. H. Newbolt, ‘He fell Among Thieves,’ iv.
| He did not hear the monotonous roar that fills | |
| The ravine where the Yassîn River sullenly flows; | |
| He did not see the starlight on the Laspur hills, | |
| Or the far Afghan snows. |
