Taint may refer to:
- Cork taint, undesirable odors or tastes in bottled wine; especially spoilage that can only be detected after opening the bottle
- Contamination, the presence of a minor and unwanted element (a contaminant)
- Infection, the colonization of a host organism by parasites
- Perineum, the region of the human anatomy between the genitals and the anus
- Taint (band), a sludge-metal band from Wales
- Taint (legal), the quality of illegally-obtained court evidence
- Taint checking, a feature of some programming languages that prevents unauthorized users from remotely executing commands on a computer
- The Taint (or Doctor Who and the Taint), a novel written by Michael Collier and based on the British television series Doctor Who
- Tint (archaic)
Famous quotes containing the word taint:
“While I believe that with a fair election in the South, our electoral vote would reach two hundred, and that we should have a large popular majority, I am yet anxious, as you are, that in the canvassing of results there should be no taint of dishonesty.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“And, beholding in many souls the traits of the divine beauty, and separating in each soul that which is divine from the taint which it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends to the highest beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity, by steps on this ladder of created souls.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Unkindness may do much,
And his unkindness may defeat my life,
But never taint my love.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)