Search the Dictionary

A mountain lake or pool. A lofty precipice in front, A silent tarn below. Wordsworth.

r, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color. "Tarnished lace." Fuller. Used also figuratively; as, to tarnish one's honor.

One who, or that which, tarnishes.

A white, crystalline substance, C12H13NO3, obtained as a product of the decomposition of narcotine. It has weak basic properties, and is usually regarded as an alkaloid.

The European starling. [Prov. Eng.]

A curious American mole (Condylura cristata) having the nose expanded at the end into a stellate disk; -- called also star-nosed mole.

the nonmetals. It is of a steel-gray color and brilliant luster, though usually dull from tarnish. It is very brittle, and sublimes at 356º Fahrenheit. It is sometimes found native, but usually combined with silver, cobalt, nickel, iron, antimony, or sulphur. Orpiment and realgar are two of its sulphur compounds, the f…

To bespatter with foul reports or false and injurious charges; to tarnish in point of reputation or good name; to slander or calumniate; as, to asperse a poet or his writings; to asperse a man's character. With blackest crimes aspersed. Cowper.

The spreading of calumniations reports or charges which tarnish reputation, like the bespattering of a body with foul water; calumny. Every candid critic would be ashamed to cast wholesale aspersions on the entire body of professional teachers. Grote. Who would by base aspersions blot thy virtue. Dryden.…

To tarnish, as reputation or character; to defame. There had nothing passed between us that might blemish reputation. Oldys.

lled purple copper ore (or erubescite), in allusion to the colors shown upon the slightly tarnished surface.

5. It resembles iron in color and luster, but is soft, and both malleable and ductile. It tarnishes readily in the air.

To blacken; to sully; to stain; to tarnish; to damage; -- esp. used of reputation or character. I would not be a stander-by to hear My sovereign mistress clouded so, without My present vengeance taken. Shak.

To soil, stain, or corrupt by contact; to tarnish; to sully; to taint; to pollute; to defile. Shall we now Contaminate our figures with base bribes Shak. I would neither have simplicity imposed upon, nor virtue contaminated. Goldsmith.

To make foul; to sully; to tarnish. I must not think there are Evils enough to darken all his goodness. Shak.

To soil or sully; to tarnish, as reputation; to taint. He is . . . among the greatest prelates of this age, however his character may be defiled by . . . dirty hands. Swift.

or clearness; obscure in luster or sound; dusky; darkish; obscure; indistinct; overcast; tarnished. The dim magnificence of poetry. Whewell. How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. I never saw The heavens so dim by day. Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, Through words and things, a dim and perilous…

To tarnish; to sully; to scandalize; -- said of reputation, character, etc.

ith a different color from the natural or proper one; to stain; to discolor; to sully; to tarnish; to defile; -- used chiefly in poetry. "Distained with dirt and blood." Spenser. [She] hath . . . distained her honorable blood. Spenser. The worthiness of praise distains his worth. Shak.

To render dim or obscure; to sully; to tarnish. "Dulls the mirror." Bacon.