Link Centre Dictionary

stain

UK/steɪn/ US/ˈsteɪn/ fairly common
verb (4) noun (5)

verb

1.

color with a liquid dye or tint

  • “Stain this table a beautiful walnut color”
  • “people knew how to stain glass a beautiful blue in the middle ages”
2.

produce or leave stains

  • “Red wine stains the table cloth”
3.

make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically

  • “The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air”
  • “Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man”
Synonyms
4.

color for microscopic study

  • “The laboratory worker dyed the specimen”

noun

1.

a soiled or discolored appearance

  • “the wine left a dark stain”
Synonyms
2.

(microscopy) a dye or other coloring material that is used in microscopy to make structures visible

3.
4.

a symbol of disgrace or infamy

  • “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain” -Genesis
Synonyms
5.

an act that brings discredit to the person who does it

  • “he made a huge blot on his copybook”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English steinen, steynen (“to stain, colour, paint”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse steina (“to stain, colour, paint”), from steinn (“stone, mineral blue, colour, stain”), from Proto-Norse ᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ (stainaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). Cognate with Old English stān (“stone”). More at stone. Replaced native Middle English wem (“spot, blemish, stain”), from Old English wamm (“spot, stain”). In some senses, influenced by unrelated Middle English disteynen (“to discolor, remove the colour from"; literally, "de-colour”), from Anglo-Norman desteindre (“to remove the colour from, bleach”), from Old French destaindre (“to remove the color from, bleach”), from des- (“dis-, de-, un-”) + teindre (“to dye”), from Latin tingo.

Phrases

  • blue stain
  • coffee stain effect
  • Colorado brown stain
  • Feulgen stain
  • Giemsa stain
  • Gömöri stain
  • green stain
  • hit a stain

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.