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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
taint
I.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ It appeared the water supply had been tainted with a deadly toxin.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As a result, consumers no longer see used vehicles as somehow tainted and risky.
▪ Catty and stale aromas may develop and taint the beer.
▪ In this interpretation, Benjamin has been tainted by his relationship with Mrs Robinson and her alcoholic self-loathing.
▪ Some of the front-runners fortunately are not tainted by committee membership, nor do they look like Ed Moore clones.
▪ The spreading leprosy taints ev'ry part, Infects each limb, and sickens at the heart.
▪ Will their reputations be tainted by something that may end up a cruel game of Washington politics?
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the scruples would spawn in his head, giving a cynical taint to his image of himself.
▪ By age thirty, $ 500, 000-and that sum had the taint of the mediocre.
▪ From the taint of sadism, the hint of superiority, the woman evidently wanted her to fail.
▪ I understood the taint that adheres to everything domestic.
▪ Neither were judicial and court officials free from the taint of corruption.
▪ Other aspects of acceptability relate to the product behaviour in relation to taint, corrosion and harmonisation with house colour codes.
▪ The taint of politics in conservation is not peculiar to the federal agencies.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Taint

Taint \Taint\, v. t.

  1. 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.
    --Massinger.

  2. To hit or touch lightly, in tilting. [Obs.]

    They tainted each other on the helms and passed by.
    --Ld. Berners.

Taint

Taint \Taint\, v. t. [F. teint, p. p. of teindre to dye, tinge, fr. L. tingere, tinctum. See Tinge, and cf. Tint.]

  1. 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.

  2. Fig.: To stain; to sully; to tarnish.

    His unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.
    --Shak.

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

Taint

Taint \Taint\, n. [Cf. F. atteinte a blow, bit, stroke. See Attaint.]

  1. A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.

    This taint he followed with his sword drawn from a silver sheath.
    --Chapman.

  2. 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

Taint \Taint\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Tainted; p. pr. & vb. n. Tainting.] To thrust ineffectually with a lance. [Obs.]

Taint

Taint \Taint\, v. i.

  1. To be infected or corrupted; to be touched with something corrupting.

    I can not taint with fear.
    --Shak.

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

Taint

Taint \Taint\, n.

  1. Tincture; hue; color; tinge. [Obs.]

  2. Infection; corruption; deprivation.

    He had inherited from his parents a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove.
    --Macaulay.

  3. A blemish on reputation; stain; spot; disgrace.

Taint

Taint \Taint\, v. t. Aphetic form of Attaint.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
taint

1570s, "to corrupt, contaminate," also "to touch, tinge, imbue slightly" (1590s), from Middle English teynten "to convict, prove guilty" (late 14c.), partly from Old French ataint, past participle of ataindre "to touch upon, seize" (see attainder). Also from Anglo-French teinter "to color, dye" (early 15c.), from Old French teint (12c.), past participle of teindre "to dye, color," from Latin tingere (see tincture). Related: Tainted; tainting.

taint

c.1600, "stain, spot," from Old French teint "color, hue, dye, stain," from Latin tinctus "a dyeing," from tingere "to dye" (see tincture). Meaning "a moral stain, corruption, contaminating influence" is from 1610s.

Wiktionary
taint

Etymology 1 n. 1 A (l en contamination), (l en decay) or (l en putrefaction), especially in (l en food) 2 A mark of (l en disgrace), especially on one's (l en character); blemish 3 (context obsolete English) tincture; hue; colour 4 (context obsolete English) infection; corruption; deprivation vb. 1 (context transitive English) To (l en contaminate) or (l en corrupt) (something) with an external (l en agent), either (l en physically) or (l en morally). 2 (context transitive English) To (l en spoil) (food) by (l en contamination). 3 (context transitive English) To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting. 4 (context transitive English) To be affected with incipient putrefaction. Etymology 2

n. 1 A (l en thrust) with a (l en lance), which fails of its intended (l en effect). 2 An (l en injury) done to a (l en lance) in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a (l en dishonorable) or unscientific manner. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner. 2 (context transitive English) To hit or touch lightly, in tilting. 3 (context intransitive English) To thrust ineffectually with a lance. Etymology 3

n. (context slang English) The (l en perineum).

WordNet
taint
  1. n. the state of being contaminated [syn: contamination]

  2. v. place under suspicion or cast doubt upon; "sully someone's reputation" [syn: defile, sully, corrupt, cloud]

  3. contaminate with a disease or microorganism [syn: infect] [ant: disinfect]

Wikipedia
Taint

Taint may refer to:

  • a wine fault, such as cork taint, ladybird taint or phenolic taint, producing undesirable odors or tastes in bottled wine; especially spoilage that can only be detected after opening the bottle
  • Contamination, the presence of a minor and unwanted element (a contaminant)
  • Infection, the colonization of a host organism by parasites
  • Perineum, the region of the human anatomy between the genitals and the anus
  • Taint (legal), the quality of illegally obtained court evidence
  • Taint checking, a feature of some programming languages that prevents unauthorized users from remotely executing commands on a computer
  • Tint (archaic)
  • as a proper name
    • The Taint (or Doctor Who and the Taint), a novel written by Michael Collier and based on the British television series Doctor Who
    • Taint (band), a sludge-metal band from Wales
Taint (band)

Taint were a three-piece metal band from Swansea, Wales. The band formed in 1994 while still teenagers, releasing a string of demos, compilation features and split records over eleven years until their first full-length album, The Ruin of Nová Roma, was released in 2005. Their second release, entitled Secrets and Lies, followed in 2007, with an EP, All Bees to the Sea, following in 2009.

In September 2010, The band announced via their website that they were disbanding after 16 years. They played their final show in December 2010 in their hometown Swansea. Jimbob and Chris still make music, Jimbob forming another three-piece band called H A R K, whose debut 7 inch was released in 2012, and Chris joining Spider Kitten whose latest album, Cougar Club, was released in 2013.

Taint (legal)

Taint is a term used in the legal field with reference to evidence that has been "tainted" or ruined in some manner. The most common of such usage is with reference to evidence, testimony, identification by witnesses, or confessions that have been obtained by law enforcement illegally. The illegality usually results from a violation of one's constitutional rights, such as a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protecting against unreasonable search and seizure. For example, the dissent in the Supreme Court decision of Missouri v. Seibert stated that "the court must examine whether the taint dissipated through the passing of time ... ."'' Missouri v. Seibert'', 542 U.S. 600, 628 (U.S. 2004) (Justice O'Connor Dissent, emphasis added). The court in Wong Sun v. U.S., discussed "purg[ing] of the primary taint" with reference to allowing evidence because the defendant's statements were voluntary and a lengthy period of time had passed as an intervening act. Wong Sun v. U.S., 371 U.S. 471, (1963) (quoting J. Maguire, Evidence of Guilt 221 (1959) (emphasis added) (stating: "... by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.")).

Category:American legal terms Category:United States constitutional law Category:Searches and seizures Category:Legal doctrines and principles

Usage examples of "taint".

Shadamehr had been wounded in the palace, the elf thought that he could at last explain the cause of the Void taint that afflicted both Alise and Shadamehr.

His helmet was of old rusty iron, but the vizor was brass, which, tainted by his breath, corrupted into copperas, nor wanted gall from the same fountain, so that, whenever provoked by anger or labour, an atramentous quality, of most malignant nature, was seen to distil from his lips.

The wind had dropped and the night air was tainted somewhat with the smell of the burning street lamps, but it was still cool and luxurious after the dank staleness that had pervaded the cellarage and which still clung to his clothes.

I was glad to see that I should have comfortable quarters, but I was annoyed by a very unpleasant stink which tainted the air, and which could certainly not be agreeable to the spirits I had to evoke.

Impure blood, inherited scrofulous taints, enfeebled circulation, debility, either general or nervous, are all advance agents, inviting catarrhal disease, and preventing rapid recovery from an acute attack, so that a low grade of Chronic Catarrh is generally the sequence.

If it has been done in selfseeking, as, exceptis excipiendis, by Leonardo, Titian, Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, it will in due course lose hold and power in proportion to the insincerity with which it was tainted.

Affairs at Amalgamated Export and Planet Aircraft, with the deaths of such key men as Craig Upman and Roy Fayle, were proof enough to The Shadow that the Wasp intended other action with certain companies that had suffered from his taint.

The blubber, cut in parallel slices of two feet and a half in thickness, then divided into pieces which might weigh about a thousand pounds each, was melted down in large earthen pots brought to the spot, for they did not wish to taint the environs of Granite House, and in this fusion it lost nearly a third of its weight.

Pure enough to breathe, but slightly tainted with an unfamiliar smell, she thought as she stepped out of the Fiver and onto the thick grassoid surface covering.

Eric joined the stream of humanity descending the steps into the subway, whistling a Bach gigue to purge his brain of any remaining taint of irritation with Professor Levoisier.

The verses which now filled his head had no taint of sanctity, but were the snatches of wandering goliards, to whom women and wine were the sum of life.

The system of Apollinaris was strenuously encountered by the Asiatic and Syrian divines whose schools are honored by the names of Basil, Gregory and Chrysostom, and tainted by those of Diodorus, Theodore, and Nestorius.

Possibly the quaint lines which nurses have long been given to repeat for the amusement of babies while fondling their infantine fingers bear a hidden meaning which pointedly imports the scrofulous taint.

I said, I believed part of the reason Don Julio took me in as family was because he also bore a blood taint.

Galactic societies frown on derogatory kibitzing, because of the totalitarian taint clinging to even such a modified form of spying.