Sully \Sul"ly\, v. i. To become soiled or tarnished.
Silvering will sully and canker more than gilding. --Bacon.
Sully \Sul"ly\, n.; pl. {Sullies}. Soil; tarnish; stain.
A noble and triumphant merit breaks through little spots and sullies in his reputation. --Spectator.
Sully \Sul"ly\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sullied}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Sullying}.] [OE. sulien, AS. sylian, fr. sol mire; akin to G. suhle mire, sich, s["u]hlen to wallow, Sw. s["o]la to bemire, Dan. s["o]le, Goth. bisaulijan to defile.] To soil; to dirty; to spot; to tarnish; to stain; to darken; -- used literally and figuratively; as, to sully a sword; to sully a person's reputation.
Statues sullied yet with sacrilegious smoke. --Roscommon.
No spots to sully the brightness of this solemnity. --Atterbury.
But four colleagues said Mr. Mayer felt that Salomon's problems could sully his own reputation.
Defense lawyers also charged that the government in its indictment released Milken's earnings _ more than $1 billion in four years _ to sully public opinion against Milken.
Sometimes the rumors are created to sully an enemy or aid a friend.
Thatcherism, it seems, destroys the professional ethic. People who follow a vocation cannot be expected to sully their hands with commerce. There may be something, although not much, in this.
Also on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said a CIA center based in neighboring Costa Rica provided false documents to sully the Nicaraguan government's image.