Link Centre Dictionary

Sully

UK/ˈsʌli/ US/ˈsʌli/ fairly common
noun (2) verb (3)

noun

1.

United States painter (born in England) of portraits and historical scenes (1783-1872)

Synonyms
2.

verb

1.

place under suspicion or cast doubt upon

  • “sully someone”
Synonyms
2.

make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically

  • “The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air”
  • “Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man”
Synonyms
3.

charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone

  • “The journalists have defamed me!”
  • “The article in the paper sullied my reputation”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.