What's the difference between sully and tarnish?

Sully


Definition:

  • (v. t.) 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.
  • (v. i.) To become soiled or tarnished.
  • (n.) Soil; tarnish; stain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Maréchal-Le Pen, who was six months old at the time of the attack, said her grandfather's name was wrongly sullied in Carpentras and never "publicly cleansed", that her election would be "a wink at history".
  • (2) His Glasgow adventure was ultimately sullied by bad results and bad relations with several players - the very same problems that have beset Lacombe at PSG.
  • (3) Those two incidents alone have landed Suárez with suspensions totalling 18 games but the Uruguayan claims it is the press who have sullied his image.
  • (4) Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights organisation Stonewall, said: "We do think it's very sad that an archbishop should sully the day of the birth of Jesus by making what seem to be such uncharitable observations about other people.
  • (5) He later thanked those who had stood by him during the attempts to "sully" his reputation.
  • (6) Beset by problems and sullied by corruption allegations, Sepp Blatter will stand next week before his dysfunctional "Fifa family", ahead of the World Cup, and announce plans to stand for election as president of football's world governing body for four more years.
  • (7) It'll be pretty amazing if Barça keep a clean sheet here even without Ronaldo trying to sully them.
  • (8) And to help promote this thoroughly anti-democratic measure, the junta has enlisted the judiciary, sullying the very bedrock of democracy.” The prospect of Prayuth’s dictatorial rule being extended indefinitely is not one that is welcomed in Washington.
  • (9) The biggest technology companies don't sully themselves with creating content: Google generates none (except Street View); nor does Microsoft , or Facebook, or Twitter.
  • (10) Saturday's The violence is yet another chapter in an ongoing, years-long battle between those who support Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon who won voting support from northern and northeastern provinces for his populist policies such as universal healthcare and rice-subsidy schemes, and those who believe him to be nothing more than a corrupt businessman who sullied Thailand's politics.
  • (11) With at least one federal investigation under way and mounting calls for reform on all sides, Escalante is in the unenviable position of keeping clean in a system that appears more sullied each day.
  • (12) The charge sheet was stunning: "He has corrupted his hands and sullied his government with bribes," declaimed Burke in his opening speech to the hearing.
  • (13) "I think this film should not go out; it was too sullied," Kechiche told Telerama, adding that the allegations against him had left him feeling "humiliated, disgraced.
  • (14) Avatar 2, 3 and 4 will also feature returning stars Sam Worthington, as disabled soldier turned swashbuckling Na'avi rebel Jake Sully, and Zoe Saldana as his alien paramour Neytiri.
  • (15) And above all of us, night and day, in weather fair or foul, with its plume of driven snow streaming tremendously from its summit, the great mountain itself looked down on us benignly – for not a soul was lost, nor a reputation sullied, on that happiest of adventures.
  • (16) To wallow in it would be fun but sullying, and also obscures the fact that Simmonds has done us a favour.
  • (17) 88 min: Barcelona stroke the ball around the edge of the Inter penalty, before Dani Alves goes down under a challenge from Sully Muntari while trying to run on to a through-ball from Messi.
  • (18) It is of grave concern to see its reputation sullied before the facts are known."
  • (19) Williamson said: “Construction firms’ optimism in relation to the outlook fell to the lowest for nearly a year in September, sullied by concerns over a slowing housing market, shortages of both skilled labour and suitable subcontractors, higher interest rates and a general weakening of growth in the wider economy.” He said the 0.9% growth in GDP achieved in the second quarter could be the peak.
  • (20) Inside Sully’s, a popular bar across from the Carrier plant, David Parliament, a Carrier worker for three decades, said he favored Trump over Clinton because “he’s not a politician, he’s a businessman”.

Tarnish


Definition:

  • (a.) To soil, or change the appearance of, especially by an alternation induced by the air, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color.
  • (v. i.) To lose luster; to become dull; as, gilding will tarnish in a foul air.
  • (n.) The quality or state of being tarnished; stain; soil; blemish.
  • (n.) A thin film on the surface of a metal, usually due to a slight alteration of the original color; as, the steel tarnish in columbite.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 'Devastated' Peter Greste calls on Egypt's president to pardon trio Read more “It’s ironic that the conviction was for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation when ... this [case] is what’s tarnished Egypt’s image,” Clooney told BBC News.
  • (2) He used the pre-recorded speech to deny accusations of embezzlement, saying: "They aim to tarnish my reputation and discredit my integrity, my stance, my political and military history during which I worked hard for Egypt and its people in peace and war."
  • (3) After heat treatment, the test piece was examined for compressive strength, compressive shrinkage, hardness, tarnishing and difference in phase.
  • (4) It is little wonder therefore that the circumstances around its death immediately prompted Westminster speculation that the announcement had simply been rushed forward from after the Easter recess in order to put some political punch back into the prime minister's tarnished anti-Ukip immigration initiative.
  • (5) Like many in Abbottabad, Abbasi believes the town has been unfairly tarnished by its association with a terrorist mastermind who lived undetected just a short distance from Pakistan's elite military training school.
  • (6) Paris police launch inquiry after Chelsea fans seen abusing black man on film Read more Handing down the orders at Stratford magistrates court on Wednesday, he said it was a racist incident that tarnished English football.
  • (7) And each of these groups is giving Clinton, or whoever emerges as the Democratic candidate for the 2016 White House race, at least a two-to-one advantage over a Republican party whose brand has been badly tarnished.
  • (8) The heavy price of Goldsmith’s shameless attempts to tarnish a liberal Muslim is that it will become harder, not easier, for Asians to call out unacceptable practices in their own communities.
  • (9) For the 32-month period these prostheses have been in use, no tissue reaction, tarnish, or corrosion had been observed.
  • (10) A conservative, lower-middle-class district bordering the Golden Horn and predominantly inhabited by Turks from the Black Sea coast, Kasimpasa loves Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the powerful prime minister increasingly reviled across Turkey and tarnished internationally.
  • (11) Anglo-Russian relations remain tarnished by the murder of British citizen and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with a radioactive isotope.
  • (12) A tarnished airline brand coupled with weak finances can spell doom.
  • (13) That did not work out, but such mis-steps don’t seem to have tarnished the rapper’s brand.
  • (14) Meanwhile, the symbols of their adopted country’s world-beating prowess, from football to cars, look somewhat tarnished.
  • (15) He said it was a racist incident that tarnished English football.
  • (16) The true value of these celebrity paintings: like Picasso's Child with a Dove , which left Britain when the Qatar royal family bought it for £50m, is tarnished by massive sums.
  • (17) The alloys which had a high atomic ratio of Au + Pt + Pd + In + Zn to Ag had higher tarnish resistance.
  • (18) The legacy of this side cannot be tarnished, but for the first real time under Guardiola, they are under threat.
  • (19) Polls over the last year showed Chicagoans growing dissatisfied with Emanuel, with the star power that helped him return to Chicago and become mayor clearly tarnished.
  • (20) Is there any chance the Israelis will let us through, and repair their tarnished reputation?