Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To mar the cleanness or luster of; soil or stain.
- transitive verb To defile; taint.
- noun Something that stains or spots.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Soil; tarnish; spot.
- To soil; stain; tarnish; defile.
- Figuratively, to stain or tarnish morally.
- To dim; darken.
- To be or become soiled or tarnished.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To soil; to dirty; to spot; to tarnish; to stain; to darken; -- used literally and figuratively.
- intransitive verb To become soiled or tarnished.
- noun Soil; tarnish; stain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive to
soil orstain ; todirty - verb transitive to
damage orcorrupt
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
- verb place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
- verb charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
- noun United States painter (born in England) of portraits and historical scenes (1783-1872)
- noun French statesman (1560-1641)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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July 5th, 2006 at 4: 53 pm seabiscuit says: sully is another one: unless he is getting paid the billion dollars that the ceo of exxon got to deny climate crisis is happening, what’s in it for him? why do it? why lie about the fate of the earth?
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There was no plot to 'sully' the reputation of Joe Wilson (not that identifying his wife as a CIA employee would accomplish that anyway).
Beyond the Pale, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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President Nicholas Sarkozy was roundly criticized for losing his cool at the recent annual Agriculture Fair by insulting a constituent who refused to shake his hand (while saying it would "sully" him to be touched by the president.)
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Most folks know that lots of American stars who would never "sully" their images over here by doing cheap car and makeup ads have no problem doing so overseas obviously, Catherine Zeta-Jones doesn't consider her ad career to be anything to be ashamed of.
Japanese celebrity ads yendi 2004
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HEMMER: How do they say "sully" in Russian, by the way?
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Then something happened at the very end to kind of sully it.
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The heroic actions of pilot chesley "sully" sullenberger in guiding U.S. Airways flight
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Chesley "sully" Sullenberger to ditch the plane in the Hudson River in a miracle landing.
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Chesley "sully" Sullenberger to ditch the plane in the Hudson River in a miracle landing.
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Roark said the witnesses testifying against Carter, including Tousley and other former sheriff's office brass, were just trying to "sully" Carter's reputation.
unknown title 2009
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