sully
verb (used with object)
to soil, stain, or tarnish.
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Sulaym.
sully
1 American
[suhl-ee]
/ ˈsʌl i /
verb (used with object)
-
sullies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sullied,
past participle, past
-
sullying
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
sullies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sullied,
past participle, past
-
sullying
present participle
noun
-
sullies
plural
Sully
2
American
[suhl-ee, sy -lee]
/ ˈsʌl i, süˈli /
noun
-
Maximilien de Béthune Duc de, 1560–1641, French statesman.
-
Thomas, 1783–1872, U.S. painter, born in England.
sully
1
British
/ ˈsʌlɪ /
verb
noun
-
a stain
-
the act of sullying
Sully
2
British
/ sylli, ˈsʌlɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sullysimple
-
sulliessimple
-
have sulliedperfect
-
has sulliedperfect
-
am sullyingprogressive
-
are sullyingprogressive
-
is sullyingprogressive
-
have been sullyingperfect progressive
-
has been sullyingperfect progressive
Past
-
sulliedsimple
-
had sulliedperfect
-
was sullyingprogressive
-
were sullyingprogressive
-
had been sullyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sully
First recorded in 1585–95; origin uncertain
Explanation
To sully is to attack someone's good name and to try to ruin his reputation. If you spread false rumors that there's chicken stock in the vegetarian entree at Joe's Diner, you would sully Joe's good reputation. Sully can also mean to tarnish or make spotty. It's easy to remember this meaning when you know that sully comes from the Middle French word souiller, meaning, "make dirty." For example, dripping chocolate sauce onto the table will sully your mother's new white tablecloth. Another meaning of sully is to corrupt or cast suspicion on. If an automaker recalls millions of vehicles due to safety problems, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence — in fact, it may sully their brand.
Vocabulary lists containing sully
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
None of the high-born men he knows would sully their steel in the name of protecting the innocent.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026
Macron almost immediately responded on X: "Shame on those who wanted to sully his memory," he wrote.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
He feels waiting any longer would just sully his father’s name.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2024
Why would millennials, unable to own their own places, sully the site of our nostalgia by playing as landlords?
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2024
He fought for its honor when other kids dared to sully it.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
In 2016, his exemplary emergency landing was dramatised in a film called "Sully", starring Tom Hanks.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Next came a year of auditions in Australia and the U.S. before I was cast as Jake Sully in “Avatar.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
Without fail, the miniature version of me would blubber at Sully the polka dot monster reuniting with Boo, and Marlin the clownfish traversing the ocean to find his son.
From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026
"Fire and Ash" stars Zoe Saldana as Na'vi warrior Neytiri and Sam Worthington as ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family's life on the planet Pandora.
From Barron's ● Jan. 4, 2026
Neither did Sully nor Anton, though they were still sniggering as Conor picked up his pace.
From "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness
"This summit does not dignify anyone, rather, it dirties them, it sullies them. We Latin Americans have to defend ourselves so that they respect us."
From Reuters ● May 19, 2022
Trivializing the suffering of those targeted for extermination by comparing it to modern-day difficulties sullies the memory of the victims.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2022
Since I began working on the history of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, every time crude oil sullies U.S. waters and beaches, I wait for the same sad, misleading official narrative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2021
No such fluff sullies the lexicon of Burke’s latest character.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 16, 2019
This rumor was circulated from house to house, like a drop of oil, which though first scarcely perceptible, sullies the fairest fabrics utterly.
From The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851 by Various
Plenty of Kobe Bryant fans began griping online about the Heat’s tactics, which they said sullied a legendary evening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
But he has been tipped to potentially replace Thomas Tuchel as England boss after the World Cup and will not want his reputation sullied by a poor end to the season.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
Now-Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood experienced similar hostility despite holding the Ladywood constituency, describing it as a campaign "sullied by harassment and intimidation" of her, her family and supporters.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2025
It has a history of bad actors who have sullied crypto’s good name by issuing stablecoins that turned out not to be stable.
From Slate ● May 21, 2025
I throwed the other ones and Mr. Taylor’s sullied knife on the ground.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
As far back as the 1930s, during the infamous “Bodyline” tour, English bowlers were accused of sullying the game by aiming balls directly at Australian batsmen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Dismayed by the trash sullying the river that the mosque sits on, he ordered a cleanup.
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2024
But Fefferman said this dirt sometimes blows onto his home, coating his solar panels and sullying his pool and koi pond.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
The LTDA's Steve McNamara said joining Uber would be "sullying" the trade.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2023
When he plunged through, he would almost drag the reputations of the cyclotron and the Rad Lab down with him, sullying the perceived promise of Big Science.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
