English Explanatory Dictionary

sully

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To soil or stain; to dirty.
  2. To corrupt or damage.
  3. To become soiled or tarnished.
noun
  1. A blemish.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A diminutive of the male given name Sullivan.
  3. A placename:
  4. A coastal village in the Vale of Glamorgan borough county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST1568).
  5. A commune in Saône-et-Loire department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
  6. A commune in Oise department, Hauts-de-France, France.
  7. A commune in Calvados department, Normandy, France.
  8. A minor city in Jasper County, Iowa, United States.
  9. An unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.
  10. Ellipsis of Sully County.

Pronunciation

/ˈsʌli/ en-us-sully.ogg en-au-sully.ogg

Word forms

sully sullies sullying sullied sullow Sullys

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

befoul sowl tarnish assoil beclart bedaub bedirty imbrue (especially with blood) bedizen befile befilth begrime beray beshit besmear besmirch besully bewray blacken blot blur clat contaminate darken defile dirten dirty elt file foil foul gunk gunk up inquinate scunge sling mud slotter slur smear smirch smudge smut smutch soil soss spot stain sullow sully uggle debase assassinate asperse backbite badmouth belibel blame blaze blemish calumniate

Related words

Sul Sull Sullee Sulley Sulli Sullie

Derived words

besully sulliable unsullied unsully unsullying Sul Sull Sully County
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