attaint
Americanverb (used with object)
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Law. to condemn by a sentence or a bill or act of attainder.
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to disgrace.
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Archaic. to accuse.
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Obsolete. to prove the guilt of.
noun
verb
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to pass judgment of death or outlawry upon (a person); condemn by bill of attainder
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to dishonour or disgrace
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to accuse or prove to be guilty
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(of sickness) to affect or strike (somebody)
noun
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a less common word for attainder
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a dishonour; taint
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of attaint
1250–1300; Middle English ataynte, derivative of ataynt convicted < Anglo-French, Old French, past participle of ataindre to convict, attain
Vocabulary lists containing attaint
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
You, reverend sir," said the knight, "have, in the encounter of our wits, made a fair attaint; whereas I may be in some sort said to have broken my staff across.
From The Monastery by Scott, Walter, Sir
Bossuet also observes, that at the moment in which Robert was struck with these terrible anathemas, nobody thought or asserted that this excommunication could carry the least attaint to the sovereign authority of this monarch.
From The Power Of The Popes by Daunou, Pierre Claude Fran?ois
Such secrets, gentle reader, might, if revealed, attaint the lady's character.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 by Various
Where you have little to suspect; And treach’rous persons will attaint Men, against whom there’s no complaint.
From The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas)
They were wholesomely housed in healthful places, and they were clad fitly for their labor and fitly for their leisure; the caprices of vanity were not suffered to attaint the beauty of the national dress.
From A Traveler from Altruria: Romance by Howells, William Dean
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
