taint1 (tant)

[Early mod. E. also tainct; Face rose-hued, cherry-red, with a silver taint like a lily. Greene, Hexametra Alexis in Laudem Rosamundæ. This pleasant lily white, This taint of roseate red. E. De Vere (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 58). 6162 4. To corrupt morally; imbue with perverse or objectionable ideas; exert a vitiating influence over; pervert; contaminate. Treason and tainted thoughts are all the gods Thou worship'dst. Beau, and Fl ., Knight of Malta, iv. 2. Therefore who taints his Soul may be said to throw Dirt in God's Face. Howell, Letters, iv. 21. 5. To give a corrupted character or appearance to; affect injuriously; stain; sully; tarnish. Glorious followers are full of inconvenience, for Bacon, Followers and Friends (ed. 1887). they taint busine through want of secrecy. The truth With superstitions and traditions taint . Milton , P. L., xii. 512. The Honour of a Gentleman is liable to be tainted by as small a Matter as the Credit of a Trader. 6t. To disgrace; fix contumely upon. Steele, Conscious Lovers, iv. 1. 'Tis dishonour, And, follow'd, will be impudence, Bonduc a, And grow to no belief, to taint these Romans. Fletcher, Bonduc a, i. 1. 7t. To treat with a tincture; embrocate; mollify. Launcing the wound thou shouldest taint , and pricking the heart which asketh a plaister. Lyly , Euphues and his England, p. 314. =Syn. 2-5. Contaminate, Defile, Taint, Pollute, Corrupt, Vitiate. Whether these words are regarded as meaning the injuring of purity or the spoiling of value, they are in the order of strength, except that each is used in different take a doublet of tainture.] The act of tainting, or the state of being tainted. Tax me with these hot taintures ! Beau. and Fl . , Thierry and Theodoret, 1 1. taint-worm (tānt'werm), n. Some worm that taints, or is supposed to do so. [An actual worm which answers to this description is one of the small An guillulidæ , as a Tylenchus , causing the disease ear-cockles in wheat, and commonly called vibrio ; but any insect-larva of such habits, as a joint worm, would answer the poetical requirements of the name.] As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint - worm to the weanling herds that graze. Milton , Lycidas, 1. 46. Tai-ping, Tae-ping (ti'ping'), n. [Chinese, t'ai , a form of ta , great, + ping , peace: see def.] One of those who took part in the great rebellion inaugurated in southern China in 1850 by one Hung-siu-tsuen, who, calling himself the "Heavenly Prince," pretended that he had a divine mi ion to overturn the Manchu dynasty and set up a purely native dynasty, to be styled the Tai - ping Chao , or 'Great peace Dynasty. As the cue had been imposed (about 1644) upon the Chinese by the Manchus as an outward expre ion of loyalty to the Tatar dynasty, the Tai-pings discarded the cue, and hence were styled by the Chinese Ch'ang- mao - tsch , or 'long-haired rebels.' Hung-siu-tsuen also promulgated a kind of spurious Christianity, in which God (Shangti) was known as the "Heavenly Father," and Jesus Christ as the "Heavenly Elder Brother." The insurrection was suppre ed about 1864, largely with the aid of the "Ever-victorious Army" under Colonel Gordon, who from that time became known as "Chinese Gordon." degrees of strength, and that vitiate is one of the weaker taira, tayra (tī'rä), n. [S. Amer.] A South words and taint a strong word for rendering impure. Cor- American musteline carnivore, Galera barbara. rupt means the absolute destruction of purity. They all tairge (tarj), v. t. A Scotch form of targes. suggest an influence from without coming upon or into tairn (tarn), n. A Scotch form of tarn1. that whose purity or value is injured. II. in trans. 11. To be tinged or tinctured; be come imbued or touched. Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane I cannot taint with fear. Shak ., Macbeth, v. 3. 3. credit or dishonor. His taints and honours Waged equal with him. Shak . , A. and C., v. 1. 30. Here 'twill dash Your busine has received a taint . B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1. 3. An infecting tinge; a trace; a touch. A hallowed temple, free from taint Of ethnic is me. B. Jonson, Underwoods, xiii. There was a taint of effeminacy in his [Gray's] nature. Lowell , New Princeton Rev., I. 162. 4. A corrupting or contaminating influence, physical or moral; a cause or condition of depravation or decay; an infection. A deep and general taint infected the morals of the most influential cla es, and spread itself through every province of letters. Macaulay, Hallam's Const. Hist. The sad bequest of sire to son, The body's taint , the mind's defect. Whittier , The Shadow and the Light. It is also e ential that there shall be no dry rot or taint present [in the wood]. Spons' Encyc. Manuf., I. 9. 51. A certain spider of small size and red color, reputed to be poisonous: perhaps a species of Latrodectus , but probably only a harvest-mite, and not poisonous. There is found in the summer a kind of spider called a tainct , of a red colour, and so little of body that ten of the largest will hardly outweigh a grain. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., ііі. 27.