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taint

Pronunciation: /teɪnt/

The English word “taint” has 17 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
  2. A tinge, trace or touch.
  3. A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish.
  4. Tincture; hue; colour.
  5. Infection; corruption; deprivation.
  6. A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
  7. A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
  8. 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.
  9. The perineum.

verb

  1. To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
  2. To spoil (food) by contamination.
  3. To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
  4. To be affected with incipient putrefaction.
  5. To mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
  6. To invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.
  7. To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
  8. To thrust ineffectually with a lance.

Etymology

From Middle French teint, from Old French teint (past participle of teindre (“to dye, to tinge”)), from Latin tinctum (past participle of tingere); compare tint.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.