sully
verb (used with object)
to soil, stain, or tarnish.
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
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
I thought of the grand preparations, the hours of ladies in beauty parlors, the hundreds of thousands of new and delicate ball gowns, the spike-heeled satin shoes a passing out might sully.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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
One of the competitors, Hailey Krahenbuhl, wrote on Facebook that her horse, Sully, was one of the horses injured in the attack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
The movie once again stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington as Na'vi warrior Neytiri and ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family's life on Pandora.
From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025
“Don’t touch him,” Harry said, calm and low, but so ominously that Sully immediately stepped back.
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
Even into remote mountain towns, and in small forgotten cities, on the edge of lonely lakes, or deep-sunk in chestnut woods, or ilex-forests, the same desecration creeps, and sullies, and pollutes.
From Critical Studies by Ouida
I had imagined that retirement would offer a life unshackled at last, a blissful new chapter in which workplace anxiety no longer sullied my contentment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 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
I'm not surprised to see air pollution, it's why we're doing the experiment, but I can't escape a feeling of being dirtied, contaminated… sullied by it.
From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026
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’d never known love so pure, and I was afraid that it would become sullied by my mother.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
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
"I think it's greedy - monetising something that is so pure like Test cricket feels like it is sullying the game. It just doesn't sit right with me."
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2025
Dismayed by the trash sullying the river that the mosque sits on, he ordered a cleanup.
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2024
Miller has adamantly denied the charges and on Wednesday filed a defamation suit accusing Grisham of sullying his name.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 7, 2021
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.
