sully
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sully¹
- /ˈsʌli/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ʌli
Where it comes from
From Middle English sulen, sulien (“to become dirty; to defile, pollute, taint”), from Old English sylian (“to soil, pollute; to sully”), from Proto-West Germanic *sulwōn, *sulwijan (“to make dirty; to sully”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid, muck”), perhaps conflated partially with Old French souillier (“to soil”) (modern French souiller) from the same Germanic source. The word is cognate with Danish søle (“to sully”), West Flemish seulewen (“to sully”) (Middle Dutch soluwen (“to sully”)), German sühlen (“to sully”), Old Saxon sulian (“to sully”), Swedish söla (“to sully”). Also compare Middle English sulpen (“to defile, pollute”), Old English solian (“to soil, become defiled, make or become foul”), and see more at soil.
verb sullies · sullying · sullied · sullow
-
To soil or stain; to dirty.
He did not wish to sully his hands with gardening.
Similar: befoul, sowl, tarnish, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile, befilth, begrime
-
To corrupt or damage.
She tried to sully her rival’s reputation with a suggestive comment.
Similar: besmirch, debase, stain, tarnish, assassinate, asperse, backbite, badmouth, befoul, belibel, besmear, bewray
- To become soiled or tarnished. [G]old bears the fire, which ſilver doth not: but that is an excellency in nature, but it is nothing at all in uſe; for any dignity in uſe I know none, but that ſilvering will ſully and canker more than gilding; […]
noun sullies
- A blemish. You laying these ſlight ſallies on my ſonne, / As t'were a thing a little ſoyld with working, […]
Sully²
- /ˈsʌli/
Rhymes with -ʌli
proper noun Sullys · Sullies
- A surname.
- A diminutive of the male given name Sullivan.
- A coastal village in the Vale of Glamorgan borough county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST1568).
- A commune in Saône-et-Loire department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
- A commune in Oise department, Hauts-de-France, France.
- A commune in Calvados department, Normandy, France.
- A minor city in Jasper County, Iowa, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.
- Ellipsis of Sully County
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: besmirch, defile, taint, smirch, smear, maculate, asperse, tarnish, denigrate, defame, slander, calumniate, cloud, corrupt, pollute, foul
Translations
Every language
verb to soil or stain
| Português | sujar |
|---|---|
| Français | salir, souiller |
| Deutsch | besudeln, schmutzig machen |
| Română | spurca, mânji |
| Русский | па́чкать páčkatʹ, мара́ть marátʹ |
Talk about this word "sully." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sully. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sully. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sully "sully." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sully.Cite this
@misc{sully_2026,
title = {sully},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sully},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
