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.

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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.

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gully ¹ British  

/ ˈɡʌlɪ /

noun

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

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gully ² 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

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verb

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

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.

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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

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

The chance to Brook, off the bowling off Archer, was a powerful slash to gully.

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2025

Inglis and Carey countered, boundaries continued to flow and Duckett put down another chance - this time Inglis at gully off the bowling off Stokes.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025

From the next ball, Carey gloved a venomous lifter, only for Ben Duckett to grass the vital catch moving forward from gully.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025

I got out of the bag and fed them and packed and stood on the sled and they pulled up and out of the gully like a runaway train.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

"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

These artificial gullies match the ones seen on Mars almost exactly.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025

Its gently rolling hills are blanketed with low-growing mesquite and shrubs intersected by small gullies and streams, and many of its small, sleepy towns seem plucked from old Westerns.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2023

As Hilary bore down, torrents of water rushed through Death Valley, forging new gullies, displacing heavy rocks and undercutting roadways, including State Route 190, one of the park’s main thoroughfares.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2023

Not these knife-sharp crags and gaping gullies, these icicles taller than trees.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

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

That weird first night, 27 big C-47 transports hauled their double tows of gliders up to a rough, gullied clearing in the jungle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Into the wooded, gullied fields around Polly Ray Mountain at Fort Bragg, N.C., 18,000 troops of the Ninth Division moved for maneuvers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wind and water have stripped one-fourth of its tilled lands to the subsoil, hopelessly gullied much more.

From Time Magazine Archive

The buggy rolled between gullied slopes of red clay.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

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)

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

Related Words

• chasm
• crevasse
• culvert
• trench