Stain \Stain\, n.
1. A discoloration by foreign matter; a spot; as, a stain on
a garment or cloth. --Shak.
2. A natural spot of a color different from the gound.
Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains.
--Pope.
3. Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach.
Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains.
--Dryden.
Our opinion . . . is, I trust, without any blemish
or stain of heresy. --Hooker.
4. Cause of reproach; shame. --Sir P. Sidney.
5. A tincture; a tinge. [R.]
You have some stain of soldier in you. --Shak.
Syn: Blot; spot; taint; pollution; blemish; tarnish; color;
disgrace; infamy; shame.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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Stain \Stain\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stained; p. pr. & vb. n.
Staining.]
[Abbrev. fr. distain.]
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
processess 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.
--Milton.
4. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison.
She stains the ripest virgins of her age. --Beau. &
Fl.
That did all other beasts in beauty stain.
--Spenser.
Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic
pigments fused into its substance, -- often used for
making ornament windows.
Syn: To paint; dye; blot; soil; sully; discolor; disgrace;
taint.
Usage: Paint, Stain, Dye. These denote three different
processes; the first mechanical, the other two,
chiefly chemical. To paint a thing is so 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.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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