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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
   - dye
    
5. (of someone's image or good reputation) damage, place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
   - defile, sully, corrupt, 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
    
3. Anything regarded as making something unclean
   - 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
   "And the Lord set a stain upon Cain";
   - mark, stigma, brand

Sounds like: stane

Derived forms: stained, stains, staining

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