sully

See also: Sully

English

WOTD – 9 April 2018

Etymology

A child whose face and hand have been sullied after playing with mud

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌli/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌli
• Hyphenation: sul‧ly

Verb

sully (third-person singular simple present sullies, present participle sullying, simple past and past participle sullied)

1. (transitive) To soil or stain; to dirty.

   Synonyms: befoul, (obsolete) sowl, tarnish; see also Thesaurus:dirty

   He did not wish to sully his hands with gardening.

   • {{quote-book|en|year=1672|author=The Earl of Roscommon [Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon]|chapter=The Sixth Ode, of the Third Book of Horace|title=Poems by the Earl of Roscomon