You do not perceive, O, soul beloved, that you do not sully them in going to "open to the spouse," and that if you contract some slight impurity, he will remove it so perfectly, that you will become more beautiful.
"Letters of Madam Guyon"
P. L. Upham
What a half-length the great sully would have made of him, with his high collar, white shirt-front and wonderful neck-cloth with its pleats and counterpleats, to say nothing of his rosy cheeks and bald head, the high light glistening on one of his big bumps of benevolence.
"Peter A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero"
F. Hopkinson Smith
"My darling," she said, "why sully your pure mind with disagreeable matters?
"The Song of Songs"
Hermann Sudermann