Taint | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Tāint, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. TAINTED; p. pr. & vb. n. TAINTING.] [Fr. teindre, to dye, tinge, p. p. teint, O. Fr. taindre, p. p. taint, from Lat. tingere. See TINGE, and cf. TEINT and ATTAINT.]

To imbue or impregnate, as with some extraneous matter which alters the sensible qualities of the substance.
More generally, to impregnate with something odious, noxious, or poisonous; hence, to corrupt; to infect; to poison; as, putrid substances taint the air.
To stain; to sully; to tarnish.

Take my life, but never taint my love. Shak. 4. To corrupt, as blood; to attaint. [Obs.] Syn.—To contaminate; defile; pollute; corrupt; infect; disease; vitiate; poison.

Tāint, v. i.

verbintransitive

Sense 1. To be infected or corrupted; to be touched with something corrupting. I can not taint with fear. Shak.

Sense 2. To be affected with incipient putrefaction; as, meat soon taints in warm weather.

Tāint, n.

noun

Sense 1. Tincture; stain.

Sense 2. Infection; corruption; depravation.

He had inherited from his parents a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove. Macaulay.

Sense 3. A blemish on reputation; a stain; a spot.

Sense 4. A kind of red spider common in summer.

Tāint, n.

noun

n. [Etymology uncertain, perhaps from Fr. tenter, to try or attempt.] [Obs.] 1. A thrust with a lance which fails of its intended effect. This taint he followed with his sword drawn from a silver sheath. Chapman. 2. An injury done to a lance used in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter, but not in the most honorable or scientific manner.

Tāint, v. i.

verbintransitive

[Sometimes written also attaint.] [See supra.] To thrust ineffectually with a lance. [Obs.]

Tāint, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. To injure, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, but not in an honorable or scientific manner. [Obs.]

I have A staff to taint, and bravely Save the splinters, If it break in the encounter. Massinger.