1
as in to taint
to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable
her poor choice of companions stained her reputation somewhat
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to paint
to give color or a different color to
stained the table to look like cherry
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in to dirty
to make dirty
oil stained his work pants
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in blot
a mark of guilt or disgrace
the stain of this cowardly act would haunt him for the rest of his career
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of stain
Caroline C. Boyle, USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2025
Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner Bissell’s Little Green Cleaner will save your upholstered furniture or carpet if they get stained.
—Ali Faccenda, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 Feb. 2025
Maggie Lange, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2025
The artifacts within them live and breathe, signs of age like rust and sun stains tethering them to our world in a way that traditional exhibits divorce.
—Vanessa Anderson, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for stain
Verb
Lower-quality hair colors contain direct dyes, which have a greater likelihood of staining your skin and fade much faster than professional-grade products.
—Caroline C. Boyle, USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2025
Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner Bissell’s Little Green Cleaner will save your upholstered furniture or carpet if they get stained.
—Ali Faccenda, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 Feb. 2025
Noun
Giving Moth Holes a Makeover: At Eva Joan, a clothing repair shop in the West Village, tears, spots and stains are transformed, rather than merely repaired.
—Maggie Lange, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2025
The artifacts within them live and breathe, signs of age like rust and sun stains tethering them to our world in a way that traditional exhibits divorce.
—Vanessa Anderson, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for stain
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stain
Verb
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With Marxism tainted by its aggressive materialism, and mere democratic socialism so mere, anarchism could be imagined as a series of defiant spiritual acts.—
Adam Gopnik,
The New Yorker,
24 Feb. 2025
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Bove asserted that the case needs to be set aside for now for two reasons: It was tainted by politics and the prosecution interferes with Adams’ ability to be mayor.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
24 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Homes in Memoriam is a collective of artists that paints free home portraits for Los Angeles County families affected by the January wildfires.—
Jessie Schiewe,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Feb. 2025
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Investment banker Andriy Sirko, founding partner of SARS Capital, paints a troubling picture of the alternative to Western investment in Ukrainian weapons production.—
Tamar Jacoby,
Forbes,
27 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Grease dirtied the handles of the ovens, the microwave ovens and the coolers.—
David J. Neal,
Miami Herald,
14 Feb. 2025
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Instead of dirtying a larger pot for your supporting dishes, this quaint cooker will come in handy for quick (or slower simmering) concoctions while matching your kitchen atmosphere.—
Sophia Beams,
Better Homes & Gardens,
14 Jan. 2025
Noun
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There, an opaque, baseball-size blot was visible on his imaging results.—
ByMeredith Wadman,
science.org,
16 Jan. 2025
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The cleaning process is the same as with wool rugs: blot with warm water, working from the outer edge inward.—
Jennifer Beck Goldblatt,
Architectural Digest,
9 Jan. 2025
Noun
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To everyone’s surprise, the phytoplankton were not asleep either: Hoppe measured higher levels of the pigment chlorophyll—a useful proxy for active photosynthesis—in the seawater than anyone expected.—
Asher Elbein,
WIRED,
2 Mar. 2025
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That green pigment comes from centella asiatica (cica), a skin-care staple that counteracts redness and soothes irritation.—
Jennifer Hussein,
Allure,
28 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Audio issues occasionally marred the broadcast, including brief interruptions of Fonda’s speech.—
Jake Coyle,
Orlando Sentinel,
24 Feb. 2025
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But a New York Times analysis of the $55 billion in savings claimed by DOGE found that the math is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes.—
Talmon Joseph Smith,
New York Times,
22 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Not that Tolbert on occasion didn’t color outside the lines at KNBR.—
Jerry McDonald,
The Mercury News,
28 Feb. 2025
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Their horn-like oversized ears are colored dark brown on the ends.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
27 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The goal is for the top to become blackened while the center remains jiggly.—
Lily Moayeri,
SPIN,
13 Feb. 2025
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By the end of January, the Palisades and Eaton fires had collectively burned more than 37,000 acres of land, blackened more than 1,500 structures, and claimed 29 lives, according to the New York Times.—
Daniel Cassady,
ARTnews.com,
19 Feb. 2025
Articles Related to stain
Cite this Entry
“Stain.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stain. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
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