tainted

American  

[teyn-tid] / ˈteɪn tɪd /

adjective

1. infected, contaminated, corrupted, or spoiled.

   An outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to eating tainted ground turkey has resulted in several deaths.

2. affected by a trace of something bad, offensive, or harmful.

   We strongly urge you to distance your charitable organization from this discredited project and its tainted money.

3. (of the name, reputation, etc., of a person or group) sullied or tarnished.

   Having such a program available to these students could help fix the tainted reputation many feel our school has earned.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of taint.

Other Word Forms

• untainted adjective

Etymology

Origin of tainted

taint ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Rather than pristine red blood cells, some of them have been tainted with black markings.

From BBC

“Hearing that,” writes Mr. DePalma, Father Leahy “realized that his group may have been tainted by the same racism of lower expectations as the monks who left for Morristown.”

From The Wall Street Journal

But there can be no doubt that the York brand is now tainted beyond repair.

From BBC

The recall of potentially contaminated infant formula has heaped scrutiny on Chinese firm Cabio Biotech, the supplier of an ingredient used in infant formula which is suspected of being tainted.

From Barron's

“A big concern is the research that Ives does is going to be tainted because of an affiliation with the ETF that holds the stocks for which he’s doing research,” Bradshaw says.

From Barron's

Related Words

• contaminated
• corrupted
• dirty
• infected
• polluted
• rotten