gully

¹ American  

[guhl-ee] / ˈgʌl i /

noun

gullies plural

1. a small valley or ravine originally worn away by running water and serving as a drainageway after prolonged heavy rains.

   Synonyms:

   watercourse, defile, gorge, gulch

2. a ditch or gutter.

3. Cricket.

   1. the position of a fielder between point and slips.

   2. the fielder occupying this position.

---

verb (used with object)

gullied, gullying

1. to make gullies in.

2. to form (channels) by the action of water.

adjective

1. Slang. of or relating to the environment, culture, or life experience in poor urban neighborhoods; vulgar, raw, or authentic; ghetto: Keepin’ it gully, for real!

   Does your mama know what you’re up to on these gully street corners all night?

   Keepin’ it gully, for real!

gully ² American  

[guhl-ee, gool-ee] / ˈgʌl i, ˈgʊl i /

Or gulley

noun

Scot. and North England.

gullies plural

1. a knife, especially a large kitchen or butcher knife.

---

gully ¹ British  

/ ˈɡʌlɪ /

noun

1. a channel or small valley, esp one cut by heavy rainwater

2. a small bush-clad valley

3. a deep, wide fissure between two buttresses in a mountain face, sometimes containing a stream or scree

4. cricket

   1. a fielding position between the slips and point

   2. a fielder in this position

5. either of the two channels at the side of a tenpin bowling lane

---

verb

1. (tr) to make (channels) in (the ground, sand, etc)

gully ² British  

/ ˈɡʌlɪ /

noun

1. a large knife, such as a butcher's knife

---

gully Scientific  

/ gŭl′ē /

1. A narrow, steep-sided channel formed in loose earth by running water. A gully is usually dry except after periods of heavy rainfall or after the melting of snow or ice.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• gullies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gully¹

First recorded in 1530–40; apparently a variant of gullet, with -y replacing French -et

Origin of gully²

First recorded in 1575–85; origin uncertain

Explanation

A gully is a deep valley that's formed by water that runs across land and wears it away. Most gullies form along hillsides. When a stream or runoff from a heavy rainfall erodes the land and forms a ravine or ditch, the result is a gully. The origin of the word is unclear, but it may come from the Middle English golet, "water channel." If you hear someone use the somewhat old fashioned term "gully washer," they're talking about a torrential rain storm — one that's heavy enough to form a gully.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gully gullies gullied gullying

As he approached the Alligator Hole swimming area, his vehicle slid off the road and became stuck on a mound of dirt 60 feet above a gully near Big Chico Creek, witnesses said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

Kim said Rinderknecht’s phone first pinged in a small gully near where they believe the fire originated.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

Baker's first wicket, Rachin Ravindra edging to gully, came in his seventh over.

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

In training on Friday, Beau Webster practised in the gully position usually occupied by Cameron Green, suggesting Australia could switch their all-rounders.

From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2026

‘There’s nothing for it but to scramble down this gully, Sam,’ said Frodo.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

"Rising water levels in rivers, gullies, and swamps could cause crocodiles to move into residential areas," the South East Regional Health Authority said in a statement.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2025

Roelofs succeeded by creating gullies in the lab using CO2 ice blocks, replicating a natural process that doesn't occur on Earth and had never before been seen in action.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025

If you time your trip right, you may see what I saw: a localized explosion of wildflowers right next to the road and in the gullies and trails throughout the San Gabriel Mountains.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2024

The group, which also includes an off-duty nurse and a marine biologist, are spending their Saturday carefully searching ravines and gullies that hardly anyone ever reaches for signs of a missing hillwalker.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2023

The water ran down the hillside gullies, pulling rocks and small trees with it, and spilled across the roads, tearing off chunks of asphalt.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

If peaches were touted as a cure for Georgia’s “sorry, washed-out anemic gullied hillsides” at the fin de siècle, than kudzu was seen as the panacea after the Great Depression.

From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2021

The details of Tito's life history were obscure, but the results were plowed deep in Tito's gullied face.

From Time Magazine Archive

Down the gullied road is a raw-concrete school or a new co-op store of fresh pine.

From Time Magazine Archive

In gullied wastelands, the shriek of tires and the stench of scorched rubber filled entire valleys.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was hard to believe this hillside had ever been the gullied wreck Joel had described at dinner.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Removing the free water enables the soil to absorb more readily rain water falling on the surface and therefore checks surface wash and the gullying of fields.

From The First Book of Farming by Goodrich, Charles Landon

There it had crumbled the brink of the Head away, the water gullying year after year a deeper and broader channel, until now the slanting gutter began a hundred yards back from the brink.

From Sheila of Big Wreck Cove A Story of Cape Cod by Owen, R. Emmett (Robert Emmett)

Related Words

• chasm
• crevasse
• culvert
• trench