Forms: 4–6 steyne, 5–6 steyn, stene, 6 steane, 6–7 stane, 7 stein; 5 stenyyn, 6 Sc. stenȝie, stainyie, steinȝie, steingyie, staingȝe, stinȝie; 5–6 stayne, 6 staine, 6– stain. [aphetic a. OF. desteign-, desteindre (mod.F. déteindre), f. des- DIS- + teindre to dye: see DISTAIN v., which appears in our quots. at the same time as the aphetic form. The vb. in Fr. and in the other Rom. langs. has only its etymological sense ‘to remove the dye from,’ intr. ‘to lose color, fade, be washed out.’ Some of the Eng. senses, both of stain and distain, are difficult to account for; it is possible that in AF. the prefix des- in desteindre may sometimes have been taken in the sense ‘diversely, differently’; it is also possible that the verb of Fr. origin may have coalesced with an adoption of ON. steina to paint, f. stein-n paint, prob. identical with steinn stone.]
† 1. trans. To deprive of color. Obs.
[1390. Gower, Conf., I. 65. Whan his visage is so desteigned.]
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 42 b. I haue a seknes and maladye right secrete which shal first slee me er my face may be stayned or discouloured.
1530. Palsgr., 734/1. I stayne a thynge, I marre the colour, or glosse of it, je destayns.
1589. Lodge, Scillaes Metam., E 2 b. Whereas vermillion hue Is stained in sight.
† b. Of the sun, etc.: To deprive (feebler luminaries) of their luster. Also fig. of a person or thing: To throw into the shade by superior beauty or excellence; to eclipse. Obs. (Very common in the 16th c.)
1557. Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 163. For here at hande approcheth one Whose face will staine you all.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1598), 344. O voice that doth the Thrush in shrilnesse staine.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXII. viii. The sunne … all lights shall stayne.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 94. In largenesse of body and greatnes of his hart … he staineth all the rest.
1610. Histrio-mastix, III. 137. This those excells as farre As glorious Tytan staines a silly Starre.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, II. ii. How hath thy valour with thy fortune ioyn’d, To make thee staine the generall fortitude Of all the Princes we deriue from Greece.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. ix. 282. He stains all other mens lives with the clearnesse of his own.
a. 1649. Crashaw, Carmen Deo Nostro, Wks. (1904), 254. Thy Son Whose blush the moon beauteously marres And staines the timerous light of stares.
† c. To obscure the luster of. lit. and fig. Obs.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 8. Sweete Natures pompe, if my deficient phraze Hath staind thy glories by too little skill, Yeeld pardon.
1594. J. Dickenson, Arisbas (1878), 41. A small cloude in a cleare day may somewhat stayne, not wholy stop the Sunnes light.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 45. O Detestable personnis, quha sa bricht a lycht blew out, stinȝeit sa honorable an ornament!
1634. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., i. (1906), 10. Thirdly, whether Poverty impeacheth or staineth Nobility.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, II. To Rdr. God … is pleased to staine the pride of men.
† 2. intr. To lose color or luster. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 15. Þe redenesse þerof is wonder fyn and stable, and steyneþ neuere wiþ colde ne with hete.
a. 1568. Satir. Poems Reform., xlviii. 15. My clayth will nocht stenȝie, Suppois ȝe weit it nycht and day.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 82. I finde it nowe for a setled truth … that the purple dye will neuer staine, that the pure Cyuet will neuer loose his sauour [etc.].
a. 1609. Shaks., Sonn., xxxiii. Suns of the world may staine when heauens sun staineth.
1614. T. Gentleman, England’s Way, 42. Wet and cold can not make them shrinke nor staine, that the North-seas … haue dyed in graine, for such purposes.
3. Of something dyed or colored: To impart its color to (something in contact). Also in wider use (e.g., said of a chemical reagent), to alter the color of (something to which it is applied).
[Cf. F. déteindre sur quelque chose.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/2. Steynyn, or stenyyn, as clothe þat lesythe hys coloure, fuco, proprie in tertia persona tantum.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 22. Lacha, Lacca or Lacta, which steyneth silke and cloth in high redde or crimison coloure.
1566. Drant, Horace, Sat., II. iv. H j b. To rubbe thynges with thy purple cloth, I wis it woulde them steane.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 37. Celedonie is an Herbe … whose flower … dyeth and stayneth the gatherers hande.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 382. His lippes are alwayes staynd with the Juice of Bacchus his berries.
1583. L. M[ascall], Prof. Bk., 14. Against clothes staynde with wine or vineger.
1750. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 145. It stains the encircling air with its greenness.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 790. Sap of the musa paradisica … stains linen.
1844. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (1857), 188. Several calculi … with layers of urate of ammonia deeply stained with purpurine.
1901. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., ii. 5. The rouge on her neck had stained her collar.
absol. 1805. Withering, trans. Werner’s Ext. Char. Fossils, 191. Solid fossils that stain are not very common.
1887. ‘Mark Rutherford,’ Revol. Tanner’s Lane, ii. (ed. 8), 31. Tea doesn’t stain; I hope it has not gone on your coat.
b. with complement denoting color.
1750. Apol. Life B. M. Carew, xi. (ed. 2), 132. They paint themselves with a Pecone-Root, which stains them of a reddish Colour.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xii. (1842), 280. Paper stained yellow by rhubarb.
1844. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (1857), 443. Urates, stained pink with purpurine.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, xi. 203. There were many human bones, in old Indian graves in the same district, stained of as black a dye.
1900–13. Dorland, Med. Dict. (ed. 7), s.v. Stains, Ehrlich’s triacid stain … stains erythrocytes orange.
1912. W. G. Smith, in Man, XII. 197. It [the flint] is white in colour, but in parts very slightly stained ferruginous from adjacent red clay.
c. transf. Of the blood: To suffuse with color. Also in passive, to be (naturally) spotted or streaked with color.
1557. Surrey, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 6. I know how that the blood forsakes the face for dred: And how by shame it staines again the chekes with flaming red.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 76. He is bespotted and stayned dyuersely with diuers colours in a maner like ye Libard.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1778), II. 81. (Passport), That … which stains thy face with crimson, to copy in even thy study.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, I. iv. His blue eyes would have been fine … had they not been … stained, as it were on the very iris, by some hazel spots in the midst of the blue.
d. intr. To absorb coloring matter, take a stain.
1877. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., 8. The protoplasm stains brown; the rest of the cell remains unstained.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 691. They were of a very faintly granular appearance, staining feebly with log-wood.
1880. Gibbes, Histol., 23. When the sections appear to have stained thoroughly remove them.
4. trans. To damage or blemish the appearance of (something) by coloring a part of its surface; to discolor by spots or streaks of blood, dirt, or other foreign matter not easily removed. In poetic use occasionally: To color, defile (a river) with blood.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxxvii. 31. Thei token the coote of hym, and in the blode of a kyde that thei hadden slayn steyneden [Vulg. tinxerunt].
c. 1450. Merlin, xxvii. 554. He and his horse were steyned with blode as he hadde fallen in a blody river.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. i. 55. The blak droppis of bluide Distillit thairfra, that all the erd quhar it stuide Was spottit of the filth, and stenyt, alaik.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. lxiii. 3. And their bloude sprange vpon my cloothes, & so haue I stayned all my rayment [So later versions]. Ibid., lxiv. 6. All oure rightuousnesses are as the clothes stayned with the floures of a woman.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Squalco, to be … soiled or stainid with som vnclene thing.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., III. iii. 22. Those same antique Peres … Which Greeke and Asian riuers stained with their blood.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 742. Scarcely the Knife was redden’d with his Gore, Or the black Poison stain’d the sandy Floor.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, I. 550. See what Reward the grateful Senate yield, For the lost Blood which stains yon Northern Field.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., II. 214. The birds were found to return with their feet stained with soil.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, viii. Upon a closer view it was spotted and stained with rust.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., viii. The walls were stained and discoloured.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 402. That bent and weary Jew … so stained with the dust of travel.
† b. To spoil (hay, grain) with damp. Obs.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 229. My barley, which was stained by the inclemency of the season in 1785, I had ground.
c. 1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 15, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The hay that has got stained.
† c. To spoil by intermixture. Obs.
1575. Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., II. Chor., Wks. 1910, II. 43. Such wicked means, malitious men can make The frutfull seede, with worthles weedes to stayne.
d. Hunting. = FOIL v.1 2.
1798. Sporting Mag., XI. 87. The ground so stained by running the foil that the scent lay with no certainty.
1897. Encycl. Sport, I. 583/1. Stained, injured as regards scent by the previous passage of hounds, horses, or of cattle, &c.
5. fig. a. To defile or corrupt morally; to taint with guilt or vice.
1446. Lydg., Nightingale P., i. 287. Moch peple viciously Were in this age … thorgh theire vice destreied sore & steyned.
1570. Googe, Pop. Kingd., I. 8 b. Lest that he shoulde be periurde calde, and staynde with heresie.
1657. Attest. Innocency Zach. Crofton, 14. A Master of a family this twelve year, or thereabouts, never stained with the least disorder or incivility.
1777. W. Cameron, in Sc. Paraphr., XVII. vii. Though your guilty souls are stain’d with sins of crimson dye.
1847. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., x. 104. The British kings were stained with every vice.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. India, II. 649. Intrigues and combinations, which were stained with treachery and assassinations.
† b. To impair the beauty or excellence of. Obs.
1575–85. Abp. Sandys, Serm., xiii. 219. Ought not we to doe the best we can to cast out all that steineth and marreth the perfect beautie of his Church?
1584. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 702. To blott and stainyie the gude word of God.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., II. xv. Which my rude pencil will in limming stain.
c. To be or inflict a permanent reproach to or stigma upon; to blemish, soil (a person’s reputation, honor, conscience, etc.); † to charge with something disgraceful. Also intr. of the conscience: † To suffer stain.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1883), 76. With which infami he wold not haue his honoure stayned for anye crowne.
1540–1. Elyot, Image Gov., 32. If a knight … had used any unseemly thyng, appairing or steyninge the estimacion of the degree, which he represented.
1577. Kendall, Flowers of Epigr., 102. Thei would not haue ye Popedome staynde, with any more Pope Iones.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, ii. 5. Conscience stenȝies if he steill.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 545. Shee that by her light behaviour had not a little steined her good name.
1678. Dryden, All for L., III. i. 44. I have … stain’d the glory of my Royal House.
1682. Fountainhall, Hist. Observes (Bannatyne Club), 80. It was also at this tyme … designed to stain him with briberie.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 17 Oct. 1644. This beautiful Citty [Genoa] is more stayn’d with such horrid acts of revenge … than any one place in Europ.
a. 1763. W. King, Polit. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 166. The bloody executions which he [Augustus] ordered … must stain his memory as long as his name shall be remembered.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, iii. One who did not scruple to stain the name of the innocent.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, i. 28. One of the most infamous and arbitrary acts which stain the name of Napoleon.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, vii. 63. He won for himself a reputation which his later cruelties might stain, but could not efface.
d. Often used with double metaphor, esp. with reference to ‘blood’ = bloodguiltiness.
1577–87. Harrison, England, II. xxi. (1877), I. 335. I held it unworthie that anie good man should staine his paper with such frivolous matters.
a. 1615. Mure, Wks., I. 23. spair In guiltles blood thy hands to stayne!
1700. Prior, Carmen Sec., iii. Holding his Fasces stain’d with Filial Blood.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xxxiii. ‘Heaven forbid,’ he said, ‘that the Church should stain her hands with the blood of the worst of sinners.’
1868. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 365. After Wolsey’s fall, every week of Henry’s reign was stained with the blood of his subjects.
† e. To stain (a person’s) blood: (a) to prove (him) of base descent; (b) to cause ‘corruption of blood’ (see CORRUPTION 2 b). Obs.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 530. If he sayde contrarie, he … slaundered his mother, shamed himselfe, and steyned his blood.
1628. [see CORRUPT v. 1 b].
1679. [see ATTAINT v. 6].
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xv. 252. The doctrine of escheat upon attainder,… is this: that the blood of the tenant, by the commission of any felony … is corrupted and stained.
† f. To vilify in words, abuse. Obs.
c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 385. Thorow here fayre speche oure lawys they steyn.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. I. ii. 41. The busie soul thus doth her reason strain To write or speak what envious tongue may never stain.
1691. d’Emiliane’s Frauds Rom. Monks, 63. The Officer very dexterously and freely stain’d the Priest with his Tongue.
† g. To ‘obfuscate,’ make tipsy. Obs.
1614. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, I. iii. Why? we were all a little stain’d last night, sprinckled with a cup or two.
† 6. To ornament with colored designs or patterns. Obs.
1426–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 64. Payd for betyng & steynynge of þe same penouns, vj s.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/2. Steynyn, as steynyowrys, polo.
1466. in Archæologia, L. 42. Item j Rydyl steyned wt a chalix and the figur of the sacrament on hyt and ij angell.
1482. Cely Papers (Camden), 118. The cortens be stayned bot on the ton syde.
1488. in Archæologia, XLV. 117. Item, ij Clothes for the sepulchre, oon with the Passion and the other steyned full of whyte leves.
1506. in G. Oliver, Lives Bps. Exeter, etc. (1861), 359. 1 front de lineo, stayned cum scriptura ‘Honor Deo.’ 1 front cum tuello annexo, stayned cum Crucifixo, Maria et Johanne, Petro et Paulo.
1555. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Mary (1914), 181. v longe garmentes the vpper Bodyes vpper baces of white cloth of syluer stayned with Collours.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 133. The brests of divers [mummies] being stained with Hieroglyphicall characters.
absol. 1390. Gower, Conf., I. 225. I wol me noght therof excuse, That I with such colour ne steyne.
† b. To depict in color. Obs.
1519. Registr. Aberdon. (Maitland Club), II. 174. Ane grite arres bed … with þe kingis armes and bischoipe Willeam Elphinstone’s stenȝeit be [blank].
a. 1642. Kynaston, Leoline & Sydanis, 1820. A carpet … On which the hyacinth and narcissus blue So naturally were stain’d, as if they grew.
fig. 1569. G. B., Shippe Safegarde, D vij b. A follie therefore were it here for me, To touch that he with pencell once did staine.
7. To color (esp. textile fabrics, paper, wood, stone) by the application of pigment that more or less penetrates the substance instead of forming a coating on the surface, or by means of chemical reagents. In microscopical and histological research: To color (tissues, etc.) with some pigment so as to render the structure clearly visible.
1655. E. Terry, Voy. India, iii. 115. That pretty art of staining, or printing and fixing those variety of Colours in that white Cloth, the People of Asia have engrossed to themselves.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 44. There are also made Calicoes, stained of divers colours.
1675. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 236. Her nails were stein’d (as the custome is here) with alcanna of a golden red.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5018/4. Any Person who … shall Print, Paint, or Stain, any Paper to serve for Hangings. Ibid. (1712), No. 5025/2. Any Person who shall Print, Paint, Stain or Dye any Callicoes, Silks or Stuffs.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 338. An artificial marble formed by staining white marble with corrosive tincture.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 204. Experiments, made by Professor Beckmann, on staining wood.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 398. Magistery of bismuth is sometimes mixed with pomatum for the purpose of staining the hair of a dark colour.
1873. J. Matthews, J. Davis’s Prepar. Microsc. Obj. (ed. 2), 8. The tissue may be subsequently stained with iodine.
1881. Young, Ev. Man his own Mechanic, § 1638. 731. Let us see what wallpaper is and how it is painted or technically speaking ‘stained.’
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, vii. There were rolls of vellum or papyrus, stained-saffron colour at the back.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 455. Finished in an altogether superior style … and the whole stained and varnished in imitation mahogany, 21/-.
b. To color (glass) with transparent colors. Also rarely to depict in stained glass.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VII. 779/1. The first thing to be done, in order to paint or stain glass … is to design … the whole subject on paper.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 757. Of the Colours used in staining Glass.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., xiv. 289. The invention of the art of painting on and staining glass … is … known to have existed for many centuries.
1893. Kath. L. Bates, Engl. Relig. Drama, 26. Some Christian hero, whose martyrdom was stained in window, carved in canopy.
