Morose Meaning
/məˈɹəʊs/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjSullen and ill-tempered; gloomy.
adjSullen, gloomy; showing a brooding ill humour.
Sentence Examples
He became increasingly morose after the loss.
Her morose mood affected everyone around her.
He became quiet and morose after receiving the bad news.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing his job, he became ____ and refused to talk to anyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He became increasingly ____ after losing his job.
Word Origin & History
From French morose, from Latin mōrōsus (“particular, scrupulous, fastidious, self-willed, wayward, capricious, fretful, peevish”), from mōs (“way, custom, habit, self-will”). See moral.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"If there is any boy or man who loves to be melancholy and morose, and who cannot enter with kindly sympathy into the regions of fun, let me seriously advise him to shut my book and put it away. It is not meant for him."
— 1857, R. M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island:
"My skin is cold / Transfusion with somebody / Morose and old / Drop into fruitless dying / It was tempting and bared / The whoring angel rising / Now burning prayers / My silent time of losing / My foes, they can't destroy my body / Colliding slow, like life itself"
— 1996, “10's”, in The Great Southern Trendkill, performed by Pantera:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing his job, he became ____ and refused to talk to anyone.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He became increasingly ____ after losing his job.