Search

Law. to condemn by a sentence or a bill or act of attainder.
to disgrace.
Archaic. to accuse.
Obsolete. to prove the guilt of.
Obsolete. a stain; disgrace; taint.
Historical Examples

Hereditaryship is, in this sense, as much an attaint upon principle, as an outrage upon society.
The Writings of Thomas Paine, Volume II Thomas Paine

Hither he came, when attaint was lifted, late in those tottering years.
The Spell of Scotland Keith Clark

No man hath a virtue that he has not a glimpse of; nor any man an attaint, but he carries some stain of it.
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources James Wood

attaint, a writ at common law against a jury for a false verdict, finally abolished in England in 1825.
The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 3 Various

The tender of a ship or of a locomotive is the attender, and taint is aphetic for attaint, Fr.
The Romance of Words (4th ed.) Ernest Weekley

It resembles the process of reversing a verdict of twelve jurors by a verdict of twenty-four by the old writ of attaint.
Iron Making in the Olden Times H. G. Nicholls

Now Parliament was called on by the king himself to attaint his ministers and his Queens.
History of the English People John Richard Green

Need I caution thee to watch well that they bring our name into no disgrace or attaint?
The Last Of The Barons, Complete Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Since all of the victims were dead, the attaint affected only their property.
Give Me Liberty Thomas J. Wertenbaker

Others of his following failed not in the “attaint,” and horses and troopers floundered in the sand.
Under the Rose Frederic Stewart Isham

verb (transitive) (archaic)
to pass judgment of death or outlawry upon (a person); condemn by bill of attainder
to dishonour or disgrace
to accuse or prove to be guilty
(of sickness) to affect or strike (somebody)
noun
a less common word for attainder
a dishonour; taint