GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 3 definitions
-
Stain (stān), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stained (stānd); 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”.
[1913 Webster]
2. To color, as wood, glass, paper, cloth, or the like, by processes 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”.
[1913 Webster]
3. To spot with guilt or infamy; to bring reproach on; to blot; to soil; to tarnish.
[1913 Webster]
Of honor void,
Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained. Milton.
[1913 Webster]
4. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison.
[1913 Webster]
She stains the ripest virgins of her age. Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
That did all other beasts in beauty stain. Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, -- often used for making ornamental windows.
[1913 Webster]
Syn. -- To paint; dye; blot; soil; sully; discolor; disgrace; taint. -- Paint, Stain, Dye. These denote three different processes; the first mechanical, the other two, chiefly chemical. To paint a thing is to 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.
[1913 Webster]
-
Stain, v. i. To give or receive a stain; to grow dim.
[1913 Webster]
-
Stain, n.
1. A discoloration by foreign matter; a spot; as, “a stain on a garment or cloth”. Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A natural spot of a color different from the gound.
[1913 Webster]
Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains. Pope.
[1913 Webster]
3. Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach.
[1913 Webster]
Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains. Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
Our opinion . . . is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of heresy. Hooker.
[1913 Webster]
4. Cause of reproach; shame. Sir P. Sidney.
[1913 Webster]
5. A tincture; a tinge. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
You have some stain of soldier in you. Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Syn. -- Blot; spot; taint; pollution; blemish; tarnish; color; disgrace; infamy; shame.
[1913 Webster]