/ˈsʌli/
OriginFrom 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.
- transitiveTo soil or stain; to dirty.
“He did not wish to sully his hands with gardening.”
“THoſe Ills your Anceſtors have done, / Romans, are now become your own ; / And they will coſt you dear, / Unleſs you ſoon repair / The falling Temples which the Gods provoke, / And Statues ſully’d yet”
“His nether garment was of yellow nankeen, closely fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of white ribbon, a good deal sullied by use.”
- transitiveTo corrupt or damage.
“She tried to sully her rival’s reputation with a suggestive comment.”
“Ken Starr would later conclude that it was a mistake for him to expand into the Monica Lewinsky matter, largely because of the disastrous impact it would have on his Whitewater/Madison investigation a”
“As a child, Jane [Eyre] is completely bereft of love, living a loveless existence, which sullies her character. Her emotions are raw and, on the surface, completely out of control.”
- ergative, intransitiveTo 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 th”
- obsolete, rareA blemish.
“You laying these ſlight ſallies on my ſonne, / As t'were a thing a little ſoyld with working, […]”
“After all, it must be confessed, that a noble and triumphant merit often breaks through and dissipates these little spots and sullies in its reputation; but if, by a mistaken pursuit after fame, or th”
“Roses, ere their crimson breast / Throws aside its green moss vest; / Young hearts, or ere toil, or care, / Or gold, has left a sully there.”
- countable, uncountableA surname.
- countable, uncountableA diminutive of the male given name Sullivan.
- countable, uncountableA coastal village in the Vale of Glamorgan borough county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST1568).
- countable, uncountableA commune in Saône-et-Loire department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
- countable, uncountableA commune in Oise department, Hauts-de-France, France.
- countable, uncountableA commune in Calvados department, Normandy, France.
- countable, uncountableA minor city in Jasper County, Iowa, United States.
- countable, uncountableAn unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.
- abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountableEllipsis of Sully County.
Formssullies(present, singular, third-person) · sullying(participle, present) · sullied(participle, past) · sullied(past) · sullow(alternative) · sullies(plural) · Sullys(plural) · Sullies(plural)
Source: Wiktionary