/teɪnt/
OriginFrom Middle French teint, from Old French teint (past participle of teindre (“to dye, to tinge”)), from Latin tinctum (past participle of tingere); compare tint.
- A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
- A tinge, trace or touch.
“There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies, - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget.”
- A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish.
- obsoleteTincture; hue; colour.
- obsoleteInfection; corruption; deprivation.
“A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement.”
“He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove.”
- A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
“Using Apache version 1.3.29 and Perl version 5.8.2, we tracked the following sequence of taints […]”
- A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
“This taint he follow'd with his sword, drawn from a silver sheath, Which lifting high, he struck his helm full where his plume did stand, On which it piecemeal brake, and fell from his unhappy hand.”
- 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.
- transitiveTo contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
“His unkindness may defeat my life, / But never taint my love.”
- transitiveTo spoil (food) by contamination.
- intransitiveTo be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
“I cannot taint with fear.”
- intransitiveTo be affected with incipient putrefaction.
“Meat soon taints in warm weather.”
- transitiveTo mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
- Australia, transitiveTo invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.
- transitiveTo damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
“Do not fear; I have / A staff to taint, and bravely.”
- intransitiveTo thrust ineffectually with a lance.
Formstaints(plural) · taints(present, singular, third-person) · tainting(participle, present) · tainted(participle, past) · tainted(past)