attaint

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Others of his following failed not in the "attaint," and horses and troopers floundered in the sand.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To impart stigma to; disgrace: "No breath of calumny ever attainted the personal purity of Savonarola” (Henry Hart Milman).
  2. transitive verb To pass a sentence of attainder against.
  3. transitive verb Archaic To infect or corrupt, as with illness or vice.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (16)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Have you been paying any attaint ion to where the problem is? —  Wal-Mart Watch
  • A bill of attainder is one which purports to attaint (criminally condemn) a person without benefit of criminal trial. —  Capitol Hill Blue - The oldest political news site on the Internet
  • Others of his following failed not in the "attaint," and horses and troopers floundered in the sand. —  Under the Rose
  • In these circumstances, it seems to be of incalculable importance, that no attaint should be given to the delicacy and purity of their expanding minds; that their increasing knowledge should be of good chiefly, and not of evil; that they should not consider modesty as one of the prejudices from which they are now to be emancipated; nor found any part of their new influence upon the licentiousness of which Mr. Moore invites them to be partakers. —  Famous Reviews
  • The blood of one convicted of high treason is "attaint," and his deprivations extend to his descendants, unless Parliament remove the attainder 4 14 PARIAHS: The fate of social outcasts seems to have taken early and strong hold upon De Quincey's mind; one of the Suspiria was to have enlarged upon this theme. —  The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English attainten, from Old French ataint, past participle of ataindre, to affect; see attain.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English ataynten, ateynten, atteinten, etc., an infinitive due to ataynt, atteint, past participle of ataynen, etc., after Old French ateint, past participle of ateindre: see attain and attainder. Later erroneously associated with taint, stain, corruption, to which some of the senses are due.
  2. The older past participle of attaint, v.
  3. from attaint, v.
 

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/əˈteɪnt/
by American Heritage

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