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:
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
“I don’t want to sully it with people who are looking to — I mean, I don’t look at the comments. People tell me, ‘God, they’re just murdering you.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
Previously Hall had invented a machine capable of typing in Braille, the Hall Braille Writer, which he never patented because he felt profit should not sully the cause of serving the blind.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
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
"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
Sully and Anton stood there, too, their smiles slowly shrinking.
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
The least important is the structure itself, unless it sullies the site it occupies and increases the indebtedness of the people it serves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2020
No such fluff sullies the lexicon of Burke’s latest character.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 16, 2019
It does not beautify, but it sullies conversation.
From The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in all his Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley
"I come from this place that's so special to me and I felt like I'd sullied that somehow by singing about it and by making merch with my town on it," he says.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
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
Sweeping ocean views are sullied by hollow shells of graffiti-tagged homes and miles of chain-link fencing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2025
“What won’t be cured must be endured. Bibi has caused enough worry, added enough to expenses, sullied enough the family name.”
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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
The Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène rendered myth a visual map that rescued the African past from the sullying grasp of empire.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
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.
