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.
Beaming in beauty, supreme in virtue, the resplendent aegis of truth shields her from attaint!
From Anna St. Ives by Thomas Holcroft
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 William Dean Howells
What simple thief brags of his own attaint?
From The Comedy of Errors The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by William George Clark
Even to have kicked an outsider might have been held to attaint the foot concerned in that operation; so that, perhaps, it would have required an act of parliament to restore its purity of blood.
From Miscellaneous Essays by Thomas De Quincey
The birds methinks tune naught but moan, The winds breathe naught but bitter plaint, The beasts forsake their dens to groan; Birds, winds, and beasts, what doth my loss your powers attaint?
From Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles Phillis - Licia by Martha Foote Crow
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.
