taint
Plural: taints
Noun
- the state of being contaminated
- A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
- A tinge, trace or touch.
- A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish.
- Tincture; hue; colour.
- Infection; corruption; deprivation.
- A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
- A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
- 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.
- The perineum.
Verb
Verb Forms: tainted, tainting, taints
- To contaminate or affect slightly with something undesirable.
- place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
- contaminate with a disease or microorganism
- To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
- To spoil (food) by contamination.
- To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
- To be affected with incipient putrefaction.
- To mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
- To invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.
- To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
- To thrust ineffectually with a lance.
Contraction
- Alternative spelling of 'taint.
Examples
- Meat soon taints in warm weather.
- One challenged word can TAINT a player’s confidence for the rest of the Scrabble game.
Origin / 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.
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 5
taint: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordtaint: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
taint: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 6
taint: valid Words With Friends Word