taint
/teɪnt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.98 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
noun
A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
verb
To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement."
- "He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, which it was beyond the power of medicine to remove."
- "Using Apache version 1.3.29 and Perl version 5.8.2, we tracked the following sequence of taints […]"
- "His unkindness may defeat my life, / But never taint my love."
- "I cannot taint with fear."
Etymology
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.