taint
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
-
to affect or be affected by pollution or contamination
oil has tainted the water
-
to tarnish (someone's reputation, etc)
noun
-
a defect or flaw
a taint on someone's reputation
-
a trace of contamination or infection
Other Word Forms
- taintless adjective
- untainting adjective
Etymology
Origin of taint1
First recorded in 1325–75; conflation of Middle English taynt, shortened variant of attaint “struck, attainted,” past participle of attainten “to convict” ( attaint ), late Middle English taynt “hue, tint” ( tint ), from Anglo-French teint or directly from Latin tinctus, equivalent to ting(ere) “to dye, color“ ( tinge ) + -tus suffix of verb action); and teinte, from Late Latin tincta “inked stroke,” noun use of feminine of past participle of tingere
Origin of taint2
First recorded in 1955–60; casual pronunciation of it ain’t (the one or the other), i.e., it is the area in between
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Research shows that executives are tainted when their companies fail.
While the store’s events are often bursting with energy, those moments are still tainted by an “underlying fear that is kind of like a dark cloud among our community,” Lima said.
From Los Angeles Times
"These individuals should have no place in our game and collectively we have to take action to punish everyone who taints the sport like this, no matter who they are."
From BBC
Prosecutors in Paris will seek to establish whether the baby formula producers are liable for distributing a tainted product.
From BBC
The ruling denied the city’s proposal that the court could merely exclude the altered records as evidence, finding the evidence so tainted that a fair trial would not be possible.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
