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• sully
  sully

  verb (used with object)

  to soil, stain, or tarnish.
• Sully
  Sully

  noun

  Maximilien de Béthune Duc de, 1560–1641, French statesman.

sully

¹ American  

[suhl-ee] / ˈsʌl i /

verb (used with object)

sullied, sullying

1. to soil, stain, or tarnish.

   Synonyms:

   contaminate, blemish, taint

2. to mar the purity or luster of; defile.

   to sully a reputation.

   Synonyms:

   dishonor, disgrace, dirty

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verb (used without object)

sullied, sullying

1. to become sullied, soiled, or tarnished.

noun

plural

sullies

1. Obsolete. a stain; soil.

Sully ² American  

[suhl-ee, sy-lee] / ˈsʌl i, süˈli /

noun

1. Maximilien de Béthune Duc de, 1560–1641, French statesman.

2. Thomas, 1783–1872, U.S. painter, born in England.

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sully ¹ British  

/ ˈsʌlɪ /

verb

1. to stain or tarnish (a reputation, etc) or (of a reputation) to become stained or tarnished

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noun

1. a stain

2. the act of sullying

Sully ² British  

/ sylli, ˈsʌlɪ /

noun

1. Maximilien de Béthune (maksimiljɛ̃ də betyn), Duc de Sully. 1559–1641, French statesman; minister of Henry IV. He helped restore the finances of France after the Wars of Religion

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Other Word Forms

• sulliable
  adjective
• unsulliable
  adjective

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.

Example Sentences

Macron almost immediately responded on X: "Shame on those who wanted to sully his memory," he wrote.

From Barron's • Oct. 9, 2025

There are countertop devices that promise to scramble your egg inside the shell, so you never have to sully a whisk again.

From Salon • Feb. 11, 2025

Introducing a two-tier system to the World Test Championship would be "greedy" and would "sully the game", says former England fast bowler Steven Finn.

From BBC • Jan. 7, 2025

But cars—even electric cars—also sully our planet in other ways, like the constant rubbing of tires against pavement.

From Slate • Nov. 9, 2023

Not because people here aren't slobs—I’m sure a lot of them are—but they’re so obsessively worried about their property values that they’d rather die than allow the detritus of civilization to sully their curb appeal.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Related Words

• besmirch
• blacken
• corrupt
• debase
• defile
• discolor
• disgrace
• dishonor
• smear
• smudge
• taint
• tar
• tarnish