as in to stain
to make dirty
people that sully our state parks with their trash a once-gleaming marble interior sullied by decades of exposure to cigarette smoke
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sully
For the most part, this is about strained resources, not sullied reputations.
—
Emma Whitford, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Joined by his irate father, Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell), the good doctor chastises Mrs. Kirkland for spreading gossip and sullying Peggy’s honest reputation.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 11 Aug. 2025
Under the leadership of CEO Josh Schulman, the company is once again embracing its British heritage image after years of management changes, declining sales and knock-off dupes sullying associations with its eponymous check print and signature trench.
—Karen Gilchrist, CNBC, 10 Aug. 2025
That means the air on the Colorado Plateau — when not sullied by the ever-lengthening wildfire season — has become cleaner as the coal industry faded away.
—Jonathan Thompson, Denver Post, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sully
Emma Whitford, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Joined by his irate father, Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell), the good doctor chastises Mrs. Kirkland for spreading gossip and sullying Peggy’s honest reputation.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 11 Aug. 2025
Under the leadership of CEO Josh Schulman, the company is once again embracing its British heritage image after years of management changes, declining sales and knock-off dupes sullying associations with its eponymous check print and signature trench.
—Karen Gilchrist, CNBC, 10 Aug. 2025
That means the air on the Colorado Plateau — when not sullied by the ever-lengthening wildfire season — has become cleaner as the coal industry faded away.
—Jonathan Thompson, Denver Post, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sully
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sully
Verb
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Drone footage shows eight officers approach a motionless Green who appeared slumped over with a large pool of blood staining the driveway.—
Perry Vandell,
AZCentral.com,
25 Oct. 2025
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Foods like coffee, red wine, fruit and vegetable juices, grease and oils, tea, tomato sauce, and spices like turmeric and curry can stain, as well as ink, markers, and some cleaning chemicals.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Skip any skins that look moldy, blackened, or spoiled.—
Cathy Cassata,
Health,
24 Oct. 2025
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Whether this backlash will slow the data center boom, blacken the reputation of AI companies and their products with users, or hasten the roll-out of AI regulation globally remains to be seen.—
Jeremy Kahn,
Fortune,
21 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The ashes from the crematorium chimney covered the streets, sooted the rain, dirtied the snow, damaged the crops, infected every body.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Oct. 2025
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At Dilara Findikoglu, models looked like ladies in waiting that had risen from the dead; wearing antiquated corsetry that was dirtied and torn.—
Leah Dolan,
CNN Money,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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This cynicism inevitably besmirches players, coaches, and referees who have no ties to gambling.—
Danny Funt,
New Yorker,
28 Oct. 2025
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Famously, the British press conspired to draw the dramatist’s name through the mud, besmirching his literary legacy for generations to follow.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
20 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The natural world may be past saving, particularly as a habitat for the species that has so utterly befouled it, and, yet, what else is there to do but keep on keeping on?—
Nick Paumgarten,
The New Yorker,
19 Feb. 2025
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Capitalism is degrading us, killing us and befouling our world.—
Philip Kennicott,
Washington Post,
8 June 2023
Cite this Entry
“Sully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sully. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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