1. Colour with a liquid dye or tint
   "Stain this table a beautiful walnut colour"; "people knew how to stain glass a beautiful blue in the middle ages"
    
2. Produce or leave stains
   "Red wine stains the table cloth"
    
3. Make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air
   "The silver was stained by the long exposure to the air";
   - tarnish, maculate [literary], sully, defile, soil
    
4. Colour for microscopic study
   "The laboratory worker stained the specimen";
   - dye
    
5. (of someone's image or good reputation) damage, place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
   "the scandal staind his good reputation";
   - defile, sully, taint, cloud, tarnish, soil

1. A soiled or discoloured appearance
   "the wine left a dark stain";
   - discoloration, discolouration [Brit, Cdn]
    
2. (microscopy) a dye or other colouring material that is used in microscopy to make structures visible
   "The biologist used a fluorescent stain to highlight the cell nuclei"
    
3. Anything regarded as making something unclean
   "He scrubbed the stain off his hands after working on the car";
   - dirt, filth, grime, soil, grease, grunge
    
4. An act that brings discredit to the person who does it
   "he made a huge stain on his copybook";
   - blot, smear, smirch, spot
    
5. A symbol of disgrace or infamy
   "The scandal left a permanent stain on his reputation";
   - mark, stigma, brand

Sounds like: stane

Derived forms: stains, staining, stained

Type of: alter, appearance, blob, blot, change, color [US], coloring material [US], colour [Brit, Cdn], colouring material [Brit, Cdn], deflower, dirtiness, dye, error, fault, fleck, impair, mar, mistake, modify, pollute, spoil, spot, symbol, uncleanness, visual aspect, vitiate

Encyclopedia: Stain