How to Use sully in a Sentence

sully

verb
  • So suck it up, let people sully your floors, and clean well the next day.
    — Liz Krieger, Good Housekeeping, 6 June 2023
  • The night was sullied for both sides by the injury to Hayward.
    — Joe Vardon, cleveland.com, 17 Oct. 2017
  • Another home run sullied his line, though this was not his doing.
    — Chandler Rome, Houston Chronicle, 24 Apr. 2018
  • Part of the art of airing dirty laundry lies in sullying oneself in the process.
    — Anna Holmes, The Atlantic, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Anyway, what would be the point of selling people on a safe space just to sully it with dangers?
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 8 Nov. 2021
  • Is the word now — and words matter — is the word now sullied in that way, because that’s how people think of it?
    — Eric Johnson, Recode, 24 Oct. 2018
  • As the truth shifts under Jim’s feet, his view of the world is left forever sullied.
    — Ellise Shafer, Variety, 23 Jan. 2024
  • But untrained dogs, like the one with digestive issues, have sullied too many flights.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Nov. 2019
  • The high death toll in nursing homes also sullies Sweden’s record.
    — Peter Coy, Bloomberg.com, 16 May 2020
  • For the most part, this is about strained resources, not sullied reputations.
    — Emma Whitford, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
  • The problem is, people were drinking a lot of bad ones, sullying their opinion of the drink.
    — Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The problem is, people were drinking a lot of bad ones, sullying their opinion of the drink.
    — Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 7 Feb. 2026
  • The temple that honors our noblest president will be sullied by our basest.
    — Eugene Robinson, The Mercury News, 18 June 2019
  • Major League Baseball should not have his name sullying its record book.
    — The Tylt, AL.com, 8 Aug. 2017
  • There wasn’t even need to sully our arrival by hovering in reception.
    — Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 3 Jan. 2023
  • Spain’s government has since warned that the bid to host one of the world’s biggest sporting events is at risk of being sullied.
    — Joseph Wilson, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Sep. 2023
  • His career is back on track, for sure, but his reputation might be sullied for other reasons.
    — Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2019
  • Hogs rip habitats to shreds, sully clean streams, compete for food with native animals, and even eat turkey chicks.
    — The Editors, Field & Stream, 9 Jan. 2023
  • His miss was an improbability—the kind of result that sullies good process.
    — Rob Mahoney, SI.com, 1 June 2018
  • Thinking about how Toad is just the purest, cutest videogame character and how nothing could sully his image.
    — Karen Han, Vox, 18 Sep. 2018
  • The newspaper need not have worried that the name of Charlottesville was sullied.
    — Joe Heim, Washington Post, 7 July 2018
  • Image None of it, though, has sullied that first memory for Alli.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 18 June 2018
  • However, when those boys attempt to stick the piece of tape to their arms, parts of it fall off as it has been sullied and lost its ability to stick.
    — Christina Capatides, CBS News, 29 Apr. 2019
  • There will be a glorious beach, fine food and wines in a setting that allows sullied chiefs to circulate among their peers and not skulk around.
    — John Schwartz, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Nonetheless, the spectre of big tech firms abusing their troves of user data has sullied their image.
    — The Economist, 10 Aug. 2019
  • Manzur encourages that the water be sullied as part of their exhibition to the public.
    — Mario Rodriguez, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Instead, by the narrow standards of his day, his reputation was sullied.
    — New York Times, 5 June 2019
  • Along the way there have been numerous death threats, harassment and attempts to sully her character.
    — Sonia Perez D., Fox News, 8 May 2018
  • But documents Litwin had to include in his application are sullied by his past.
    — Los Angeles Times, oregonlive.com, 24 Aug. 2019
  • Across the tracks, a drab white wall meets your gaze, its once pristine tiling scarred and smudged, its smooth upper surface sullied by rust stains from an overhanging pipe.
    — Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian, 25 Oct. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sully.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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