stained, ppl. a.
(steɪnd)
[f. stain v. + -ed1.]
1. Discoloured with blood, dirt, etc.; having stains or blemishes. Also fig., tainted with guilt, disgraced, etc. Often in comb. with a prefixed n., as blood-stained, earth-stained, guilt-stained, travel-stained, etc.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. lxiii. 1 Who is this that cam fro Edom, with steyned clothes from Bosra? 1538 Elyot Dict., Infectus, infected, dyed, stayned, poysoned. 1592 Arden of Feversham iii. vi. 85 Then softly drawes she foorth her handkercher, And modestly she wypes her teare staind face. 1607 Lever Crucifix (Grosart) 49 O what is man whome Thou regardest so! A stayned cloth, a beauty withered. a 1628 F. Grevil Monarchy ccccclxxiv, Let Princes..Re⁓form that common stained Discipline, Which is the Base of unprosperity. 1889 Hardwicke's Sci. Gossip XXV. 228/2 The chalk is full of iron-stained fissures. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 701 Patches of stained skin may be due to various local irritants. |
† 2. Ornamented with pictures or designs in colour:
esp. in
stained cloth.
Obs.| 1397 in Finchale Priory Charters etc. (Surtees) p. cxvii, Item j lectus stewynd cum tapete. 1413–14 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 224 Cum 2 steyned clothes emptis pro dicta capella. c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. xviii. 258 In this steyned clooth ridith Hector of Troie; and here in this steyned clooth King Herri leieth a sege to Harflew. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 23 The steynyd clooth of the Coronacion of oure lady. c 1474 Invent. in Paston Lett. III. 407 Item, vj. steyned paperis, xij d. 15.. in Northumbld. Househ. Bk. (1770) 440, i Steyned Cloth of the Ymage of St. Nicholas. 1552 in Daniel-Tyssen Invent. Ch. Goods Surrey (1869) 15 Item one roode cloth of stayned canvas. 1627 Bp. Hall Charac. Virtues & Vices i. 181 He can make his cottage a Mannor;..his staind-cloth Arras. 1696 MSS. Ho. Lords (N.S.) II. 238 The wearing of wrought Silks, Bengals, and dyed, printed, or stained Calicoes, imported into the kingdom. |
† b. Comb. (
Cf. Painter-Stainer).
Obs.| a 1618 J. Davies (Heref.) Wit's Pilgr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 26/2 Beauty..is the Signe where Grace doth vse to lie But if thrust out, the Inne is most amisse..And hath but meerely stained-painted Walls. |
3. Coloured with liquid pigments that penetrate below the surface.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 179 Walles, Som seeld,..som painted, som staind. 1712 Lond. Gaz. No. 5025/2 Such Printed, Painted, Stained or Dyed Silks. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 38 The stained leather is then taken to the drying-rooms [in glove-manufacture]. |
b. Prepared with a staining preparation,
esp. for microscopic observation.
| 1889 Hardwicke's Sci. Gossip XXV. 31/1 A double stained-section of the plane wood. 1890 Ibid. XXVI. 101/2 Stained human muscle. 1899 tr. Jaksch's Clin. Diagn. viii. (ed. 4) 407 Such forms [of microbe] are to be discriminated by the behaviour of stained preparations in the presence of alcohol. |
4. stained glass: transparent coloured glass, formed into decorative mosaics, used in windows (
esp. of churches). Also, less correctly, glass which has been decorated with vitrified pigments. So also
stained window.
| 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest ii, Whose pointed arches still exhibited fragments of stained glass. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 159 The stained windows are very beautiful. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Painting 136 Stained glass must not be confounded with painted glass. In stained glass the colouring is not superficial, but pervades the substance of the glass. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 142 The making of stained windows. |
| fig. 1909 J. Wells Stewart of Lovedale iii. 18 Though a zealous idealist, he did not look at present things through the stained glass of the imagination. |
| attrib. 1838 Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 155/2 The present want of encouragement to the stained glass artist. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1159 Stained-glass pigments. 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers i. v. (1903) I. 280 Our stained-glass windows. 1881 W. S. Gilbert Patience ii. (Song, Bunthorne), I am not fond of uttering platitudes In stained-glass attitudes. |