[f. TINGE v.]
1. A slight shade of coloring, esp. one modifying a tint or color.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 411. But with more of the reddish tinge.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 290. This blue tinge has sometimes occasioned it to be taken for Cobalt.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 540. In purifying the silks which are to remain white, a tinge is given by the addition of a small quantity of different colouring matters.
1907. Edin. Rev., Oct., 510. The blue, instead of being converted into buff, had a tinge of red in it.
b. transf. A minute quantity of coloring matter or dye.
1770. Dunn, in Phil. Trans., LX. 71. Dying away like a drop of tinge thrown into water.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 716. These colours may be had … from a tinge wholly dissolved in spirit of wine.
2. fig. A modifying infusion or intermixture; a slight admixture of some qualifying property or characteristic; a touch or flavor of some quality.
1797. Scott, Lett. to Miss C. Rutherford, Oct., in Lockhart. A very slight tinge in her pronunciation is all which marks the foreigner.
1800. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T. (ed. 2), III. 121. [It] had given that slight, and almost imperceptible tinge to her manners.
1840. C. O. Müller’s Hist. Lit. Greece, xv. § 7. The language [of Pindar’s Odes] is epic, with a slight Doric tinge.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., viii. II. 275. His political opinions had a tinge of Whiggism.
3. Trade. (See quot.)
1850. Chamb. Jrnl., XIV. 217/1. A trader [draper] who has too much window stock upon his hands at the approach of spring tinges his winter goods, after which they rapidly decrease in amount. The tinge is a cabalistic sign appended to the private mark, by which all the shopmen know that a premium is attached to the sale of the article bearing it.
