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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

besully en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English bisulien, from Old English besylian (“to soil, stain”), equivalent to be- + sully.

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To make sullied or soiled; defile.
    • Let us avoid them as we would those emissaries of Satan whose glory is to wither piety, to blot out godliness from the ... who would extinguish the “Light of the Week”—who would besully the “Pearl of Days”—[…] 1865, Robert Gillan, The Decalogue: a Series of Discourses on the Ten Commandments:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
besullying Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
besullied Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
besullied Tense=Past lexicographic
besullies Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic

Synonyms

blot · soil · befile · smirch · gunk · begrime · assoil · sullow · befilth · sully · smut · blemish · defile · dirten · imbrue (especially with blood) · file · inquinate · dirty · besully · uggle · foil · stain · befoul · bedirty · blur · scunge · darken · gunk up · sowl · soss · spot · slur · bedirty · clat · besmirch · beclart · elt · foul · contaminate · smudge · sully · bedizen · sling mud · beray · tarnish · bedaub · befile · smutch · smear · besmear · bewray · slotter · beshit · blacken