stain

1. 1.

   color with a liquid dye or tint

   “Stain this table a beautiful walnut color”

   “people knew how to stain glass a beautiful blue in the middle ages”

   Broaderdye

   Narrowerebonizediptattoomarblevein
2. 2.

   produce or leave stains

   “Red wine stains the table cloth”

   Broaderchange

   Narrowersmut
3. 3.

   make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically

   “The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air”

   “Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man”

   Synonymstarnishmaculatesullydefile

   Broaderspot

   Narrowerdarken
4. 4.

   color for microscopic study

   “The laboratory worker dyed the specimen”

   Broaderdye

Other forms of stain

plural

stains·

past tense

stained·

present participle

staining·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about stain

What does stain mean?

stain means "a soiled or discolored appearance". That is the primary sense; the word has 9 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in stain?

stain has 1 syllable: stain. In IPA it is /ˈsteɪn/.

What is another word for stain?

Close synonyms include discoloration, discolouration, dirt, filth, grime. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is stain a common word?

stain is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with stain?

3 words rhyme with stain. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.