TAINT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Taint

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noun

Taint n.

A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect. (Obs.) "This taint he followed with his sword drawn from a silver sheath."

An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner. (Obs.)

Taint n.

Tincture; hue; color; tinge. (Obs.)

Infection; corruption; deprivation. "He had inherited from his parents a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove."

A blemish on reputation; stain; spot; disgrace.

verb

Taint v. t.

To injure, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner. (Obs.) "Do not fear; I have A staff to taint, and bravely."

To hit or touch lightly, in tilting. (Obs.) "They tainted each other on the helms and passed by."

Taint v. t.

To imbue or impregnate with something extraneous, especially with something odious, noxious, or poisonous; hence, to corrupt; to infect; to poison; as, putrid substance taint the air.

Fig.: To stain; to sully; to tarnish. "His unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love."

Synonyms: To contaminate; defile; pollute; corrupt; infect; disease; vitiate; poison.

Taint v. t. Aphetic form of Attaint.

Taint v. i. (past & past part. tainted; pres. part. tainting) To thrust ineffectually with a lance. (Obs.)

Taint v. i.

To be infected or corrupted; to be touched with something corrupting. "I can not taint with fear."

To be affected with incipient putrefaction; as, meat soon taints in warm weather.

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Etymology of 'Taint'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Taint" Quotes from Famous Books

... knew that the motive of securing the just recognition of my wife in the birthplace from which she had been driven out as an impostor, and of publicly erasing the lie that still profaned her mother's tombstone, was far purer, in its freedom from all taint of evil passion, than the vindictive motive which had mingled itself with my purpose from the first. And yet I cannot honestly say that my own moral convictions were strong enough to decide the struggle in me by themselves. They were helped by my remembrance ...

— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins

... "'Taint only that, sir; for it's enough to frighten a man to death or send him mad to be all alone here in a ...

— Mother Carey's Chicken - Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle • George Manville Fenn

... your pardon. My conduct was too infamous for that. Will you remember the family taint, developed by a deaf man's isolation among his fellow-creatures? But I had some days when my mother's sweet nature tried to make itself felt in me, and did not wholly fail. I am going to my mother now: her spirit has been with me ever since my hearing was restored; her spirit ...

— The Guilty River • Wilkie Collins

... was the autumn sunrise! After her long hardening to the stale noisomeness of London streets, the taint of London air, Marcella hung out of her window at Mellor in a thirsty delight, drinking in the scent of dew and earth and trees, watching the ways of the birds, pouring forth a soul of yearning and of memory into the pearly silence ...

— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... by danger. But for the present at least he was free. Free! The word had never appealed to him so strongly before. He drew in great draughts of the mountain air. They seemed in a way to cleanse his lungs from the prison taint. ...

— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

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