ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED1.] Having lost purity or luster, faded; also fig. sullied, dishonored.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett., to C’tess Bristol, 22 Aug. Like a poor town lady of pleasure … with tarnished silver laced shoes.
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 182. The … forest … sheds What of its tarnished honours yet remain.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxii. IV. 765. He had ceased to be called by the tarnished name of Monmouth.
