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Stain   /steɪn/   Listen
noun
Stain  n.  
1.
A discoloration by foreign matter; a spot; as, a stain on a garment or cloth.
2.
A natural spot of a color different from the gound. "Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains."
3.
Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach. "Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains." "Our opinion... is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of heresy."
4.
Cause of reproach; shame.
5.
A tincture; a tinge. (R.) "You have some stain of soldier in you."
Synonyms: Blot; spot; taint; pollution; blemish; tarnish; color; disgrace; infamy; shame.


verb
Stain  v. t.  (past & past part. stained; pres. part. staining)  
1.
To discolor by the application of foreign matter; to make foul; to spot; as, to stain the hand with dye; armor stained with blood.
2.
To color, as wood, glass, paper, cloth, or the like, by processes affecting, chemically or otherwise, the material itself; to tinge with a color or colors combining with, or penetrating, the substance; to dye; as, to stain wood with acids, colored washes, paint rubbed in, etc.; to stain glass.
3.
To spot with guilt or infamy; to bring reproach on; to blot; to soil; to tarnish. "Of honor void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity, Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained."
4.
To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. "She stains the ripest virgins of her age." "That did all other beasts in beauty stain."
Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, often used for making ornamental windows.
Synonyms: To paint; dye; blot; soil; sully; discolor; disgrace; taint. Paint, Stain, Dye. These denote three different processes; the first mechanical, the other two, chiefly chemical. To paint a thing is to spread a coat of coloring matter over it; to stain or dye a thing is to impart color to its substance. To stain is said chiefly of solids, as wood, glass, paper; to dye, of fibrous substances, textile fabrics, etc.; the one, commonly, a simple process, as applying a wash; the other more complex, as fixing colors by mordants.


Stain  v. i.  To give or receive a stain; to grow dim.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stain" Quotes from Famous Books



... Pencroft," replied the reporter. "Bows and arrows were sufficient for centuries to stain the earth with blood. Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as ...
— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne
... led on men to commit murder," said Gascoyne, in the same tone and with the same steadfast gaze. "This hand is free from the stain of human blood. Do you believe ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne
... never bring peace to Zukovo. What you do to-day will be visited on you to-morrow. I pray that you will listen to me. I have fought for you and with you—with Gleb Saltykov and Anton Lensky, against the return of Absolutism in Russia. The old order of things is gone. Do not stain the new with crime in Zukovo. I beseech you to disperse—return to your homes and I will come to you to-morrow and if there are wrongs I will set them right. You have believed in me in the past. Believe in me now and all may yet be well in Zukovo. ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs
... crablike motion. Upon its face were stamped countless wrinkles and its blackness seemed less that of pigmentation than the weathering of unbelievable years, the very stain of ancientness. And about neither face nor figure was there anything to show whether it was ...
— The Metal Monster • A. Merritt
... sent to execution like the vilest and most contemptible of criminals by adversaries who would not command a regiment. The inference is that the September massacres, which have ever since been stigmatized as the deepest stain upon the Revolution, were, veritably, due to the Royalists, who made with the Republicans an issue of self-preservation. For this was no common war. In Royalist eyes it was a servile revolt, and was to be treated as servile revolts during the Middle Ages had always been treated. Again ...
— The Theory of Social Revolutions • Brooks Adams


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