tainted, ppl. a.
(ˈteɪntɪd)
[f. taint v.1 + -ed1.]
1. Stained, tinged; contaminated, infected, corrupted; touched with putrefaction or incipient decay; affected with some corrupting influence.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 43 He thinkes it better to let that [corn] alone that is alredy corrupted, and..when so euer ye neede to occupie it, to take away that is taynted, and to vse the rest. a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta iv. ii, Treason and tainted thoughts are all the gods Thou worship'dst. 1630 B. Jonson New Inn ii. ii, Host... And speakes a little taynted, fly-blowne Latin, After the Schoole. Bea. Of Stratford o' the Bow. For Lillies Latine, is to him vnknow. 1709 Swift Adv. Relig. Wks. 1755 II. i. 99 Women of tainted reputations. 1712 Addison Hymn, ‘How are Thy Servants blest’, Thro' burning Climes I pass'd unhurt, And breath'd in tainted Air. 1821 Wordsw. Sonn., Virgin, Woman! above all women glorified, Our tainted nature's solitary boast. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 243 In what manner charcoal boiled with tainted meat can affect the interior. 1883 Sir W. B. Brett in Law Rep. 11 Q. Bench Div. 454 That these statements were tainted evidence, because they came from accomplices. |
b. Having a taint of disease; infected with latent disease. Cf. taint n. C. 2 b.
| 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 114, I am a tainted Weather of the flocke, Meetest for death. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. i. 70 Nor fear a Rott from tainted Company. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 924 Children of parents engaged in the manufacture of matches and tainted with phosphorism. |
2. Imbued with the scent of an animal (usually a hunted animal). (Cf. blemish n. 4.) Obs. or arch.
| 1704 Addison Campaign 122 So the stanch Hound the trembling Deer Pursues, And smells his footsteps in the tainted dews. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 214 What modes..Of smell, the headlong lioness between, And hound sagacious on the tainted green. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. ii, [The stag] A moment snuffed the tainted gale. |
† 3. Tinted, stained. Obs. rare.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XIII. 715/2 They also use a kind of paper for drawing, which is called tainted paper. |