sully

verb sul·ly \ ˈsə-lē \

|Updated on: 5 Aug 2018

Examples: sully in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of sully

sullied; sullying

transitive verb

: to make soiled or tarnished : defile

See sully defined for English-language learners

See sully defined for kids

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Examples of sully in a Sentence

people that sully our state parks with their trash
a once-gleaming marble interior sullied by decades of exposure to cigarette smoke

Recent Examples of sully from the Web

Disney has labeled itself an advocate for women before, including touting how its global workforce is comprised of more than 50 percent women, but the critically reviled, already scandalous show could threaten to sully its reputation in a big way.

— Fox News, "ABC slammed, accused of hypocrisy for 'cringeworthy' dating show 'The Proposal’," 25 June 2018
Several million tons reach oceans every year, sullying beaches and poisoning vast reaches of the northern Pacific.

— Fortune, "China Just Handed the World a 111 Million Ton Trash Problem," 20 June 2018
Most Frustrating Beep: Robert DeNiro took the stage and then let loose with …something that was vehemently beeped out by the producers before sullying the ears of the at-home audience.

— melissa locker, Time, "Here Are the Best, Weirdest, and Wildest Moments of the 2018 Tony Awards," 11 June 2018
Such critics will understandably protest that market principles would sully institutions, such as property rights and elections, that confer dignity on individuals.

— The Economist, "Don’t shrink the role of markets—expand it," 10 May 2018
That was before all that other stuff about double-murder indictments and death cults started to sully his image.

— jason johnson, The Root, "Video of Me Was Used to Introduce Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference and I’m Pretty Sure I’m on a Watch List," 26 Feb. 2018
Among their arguments are claims that they were denied due process during the grand jury’s investigation and that their reputations will be unjustly sullied.

— liz navratil, Philly.com, "Pa. Supreme Court justices got more than $180K in donations from law firms in clergy abuse case, records show," 11 July 2018
As for King, Cope insinuated that his tenure in government service had been sullied by his taking fees from mining enterprises.

— johnforristerross, Longreads, "Taming the Great American Desert," 2 July 2018
Last year Saudi Arabia sullied itself by detaining the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, releasing him only under international pressure.

— The Economist, "How to ensure Muhammad bin Salman’s reforms succeed," 23 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sully.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The spelling of sully has shifted several times since it was sylian in Old-English, but its meaning has remained essentially the same: "to soil." If you're looking for other words that mean "to soil," you can try out befoul, besmirch, blacken, foul, grime, stain, or simply dirty. You might wonder if the English word sullen (meaning "gloomy or morose") is a relative of sully, and the answer is no. Sullen traces back by way of Anglo- and Old French to Latin solus, meaning "alone."