stain Hear it!

stain Definition

stain (stān)

transitive verb

  1. to spoil the appearance of by patches or streaks of color or dirt; discolor; spot
  2. to bring shame upon (someone's character, reputation, etc.); taint; disgrace; dishonor
  3. to change the appearance of (wood, glass, etc.) by applying a dye, pigment, etc.
  4. to treat (material for microscopic study) with a coloring matter that facilitates study, as by making transparent parts visible or by producing a different effect upon different structures or tissues

Etymology: ME stainen, aphetic < disteinen, distain: sense and form infl. by ON steinn, color, lit., stone (hence, mineral pigment)

intransitive verb

to impart or take a color or stain

noun

  1. a discoloration, streak, or spot resulting from staining
  2. a moral blemish; dishonor; guilt; taint a stain on one's reputation
  3. a substance used to impart color in staining; specif.,
    1. a dye or pigment in solution, esp. one that penetrates a wood surface
    2. a dye used to stain material for microscopic study

stain Related Forms
stain′·able adjective stain′er noun
stain Synonyms

stain

n.

blot, smirch, blemish, spot, mottle, splotch, blotch, stained spot, smudge, discoloration, stigma, brand, blot on the escutcheon, something the matter, ink spot, spatter, drip, speck.

stain Synonyms

stain

v.

  1. To soil

    spot, discolor, taint; see dirty.

  2. To color

    dye, tint, lacquer; see color 1, paint 2, varnish.

stain Usage Examples

Object

  • glass: Some of the stained glass in York Minster dates back to the twelfth century.
  • remover: I do find I have to use a stain remover on my towels, however th.
  • window: Fabulous stained glass windows dating back to the twelfth century.
  • removal: People often worry about the care of linen and stain removal so please take a look at our Linen Care page.
  • tooth: He had a pale completion and yellow stained teeth, he was wearing a blue tracksuit top, white tracksuit bottoms and black trainers.
  • peel: Here we have images of Dinoflagellate 5 cysts from a stained cellulose lacquer peel.

Converse of object

  • remove: All that remains is to remove the rust stains made by the original galvanized pole from the GRP of the deck!

Preposition: for

  • wood: You can choose between a dark or light stain for the wood, and from a wide selection of upholstery.

Adjective modifier

  • stubborn: It can also be used neat on stubborn stains.
  • immunohistochemical: The microscopic findings of the resected mass showed a stromal cell component by immunohistochemical stain.
  • unsightly: Remove unsightly stains and odor from hair and restore full luster to area beneath your pets eyes.
  • histological: Tissue sections from such blocks are subjected to a variety of histological stains.
  • rust: Are they blood stains, or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they?
  • oily: I vividly remember seeing oily black stains on Cairn Gorm's snow.

Modifies a noun

  • remover: This is a long lasting and effective stain remover.

Adjective complement

  • resistant: This leather trim has been treated to make it water repellent and stain resistant.

Preposition: with

  • haematoxylin: Tissue specimens collected during routine endoscopic or surgical procedures were cut and stained with haematoxylin and eosin.
  • dye: Chromosomes are large enough to be seen under a microscope once they have been stained with certain dyes.

Noun used with modifier

  • grease: Suitable for smaller jobs in toilets, kitchens, stubborn dirt, grease stains, extractor fans and working surfaces, even walls.
  • urine: However if urine stains are a common occurrence then one of the larger sizes will be more economical.
stain Quotes

I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And the nursling of the Sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die, For after the rain when with never a stain The pavilion of Heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams Build up the blue dome of air, I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Lost Angel of a ruined Paradise! She knew not 'twas her own; as with no stain She faded, like a cloud which had outwept its rain.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Love is a universal migraine A bright stain on the vision Blotting out reason.

—Graves, Robert von Ranke

The sky is darkening like a stain; Something isgoing to fall like rain, And it won't be flowers.

—Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)

Money, wife, is the true fuller's earth for reputations, there is not a spot or a stain but what it can take out.

—Gay,John

The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise isgone! it isgone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

—Burke, Edmund

And let their liquid siftings fall To stain the stiff dishonoured shroud.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

   He has out-soared the shadow of our night; Envyand calumnyand hate and pain, And that unrest which men miscall delight, Can touch him not and torture not again; From the contagion of the world's slow stain He is secure, and now can never mourn A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.

—Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Browse dictionary entries near stain

  1. ‹ staid
  2. ‹ stagy
  3. ‹ stagnation
  4. ‹ stagnate
  5. ‹ stagnant
  6. ‹ Stagirite
  7. ‹ staging area
  8. ‹ staging
  9. ‹ staghound
  10. ‹ staghorn fern
  1. stained glass ›
  2. stainless ›
  3. stainless steel ›
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  5. staircase ›
  6. stairs ›
  7. stairway ›
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  9. staithe ›
  10. stake ›