Taint Meaning
/teɪnt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
nounA tinge, trace or touch.
Sentence Examples
The scandal will taint the reputation of the company for many years.
To taint means to contaminate or pollute something with a trace of bad.
Any suspicion of fraud could taint the election results.
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you leave raw meat out too long, bacteria will ____ it and make you sick.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scandal threatened to ____ the reputation of the famous politician and his entire family around the country today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies, - which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - what I want to forget."
— 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 216:
"A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement."
— 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC:
"He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove."
— 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:
"His unkindness may defeat my life, / But never taint my love."
— c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
"I cannot taint with fear."
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
If you leave raw meat out too long, bacteria will ____ it and make you sick.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The scandal threatened to ____ the reputation of the famous politician and his entire family around the country today.