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A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect. [Obs.] This taint he followed with his sword drawn from a silver sheath. Chapman.

Free from taint or infection; pure.

In a taintless manner.

Taint; tinge; difilement; stain; spot. [R.] Shak.

A destructive parasitic worm or insect larva.

- said esp. of a jury on trial for giving a false verdict. [Obs.] Upon sufficient proof attainted of some open act by men of his own condition. Blackstone.

Attainder; attainture; conviction.

Attainder; disgrace.

The quality, state, or condition, of being certain. The certainty of punishment is the truest security against crimes. Fisher Ames.

Dipped in the gall of the fabulous hydra; poisonous; deadly. Cowper.

Uncertainty. [Obs.] Shak.

Harassed; fatigued with travel. [Obs.] Shak.

certain; something unknown. Our shepherd's case is every man's case that quits a moral certainty for an uncertainty. L'Estrange.

ctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.

charging with a crime or with a lighter offense. We come not by the way of accusation To taint that honor every good tongue blesses. Shak.

Tainted with adultery.

The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of language, arising from its admitting of more than one meaning; an equivocal word or expression. No shadow of ambiguity can rest upon the course to be pursued. I. Taylor. The words are of single signification, w…

Doubt; uncertainty. [Obs.] Shelford.

In an anxious manner; with painful uncertainty; solicitously.

To know or learn with certainty. [Obs.] G. You are too much distrustful of my truth. E. Then you must give me leave to apprehend The means and manner how. Beau. & Fl.