tinge
verbEtymology The verb is derived from Latin tingere, present active infinitive of tingō (“to dip; to moisten; to colour, dye, tinge”). The noun is derived from the verb.
1
To add a small amount of colour; to tint; (by extension) to add a small amount of some other thing.
- [T]he water being ting'd red, cant it off, iterate it ſo long till the Vitriol tingeth the water no more.1658, Felix Würtz, “The Fourth Part. Treating of All Kinds of Balmes, Slaves,^([sic – meaning Salves]), Plaisters, Ointments, Oyles, Blood-stenchers, Potions, Tents, Corrosives, &c. which are Used for Wounds, […]”, in The Surgeons Guid: Or Military and Domestique Surgery. […], London: Printed by Gertrude Dawson, and are to be sold by John Garfeild […], →OCLC, page 307:
- A Saline liquor therefore, mixt with another ting'd liquor, may alter the colour of it ſeveral ways, either by altering the refraction of the liquor in which the colour ſwims: or ſecondly by varying the refraction of the coloured particles, by uniting more intimately either with ſome particular corpuſcles of the tinging body, or with all of them, [...]1665, R[obert] Hooke, “Observ[ation] X. Of Metalline, and Other Real Colours.”, in Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, page 70:
4 more examples
- Amalgam of Silver. [...] Colour ſilvery white or grey: Luſtre metallic: Creaks when cut. Sp[ecific] gravity above 10. Tinges gold white.1807, “Mineralogy”, in The New Encyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. [...] In Twenty-three Volumes, volume XV, London: Printed for Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, […]; and Thomas Ostell, […]; R. Morison, printer, […], →OCLC, part II, chapter VII (Class IV. Metallic Ores.), pages 61–62:
- In the following passage from Ælian, (lib. xiv. cap. 30.) βαψας seems to be used for denoting merely tinging or imbuing with perfume. The Persian monarch, says Ælian, στεφανον εις μυζον βαψας, επεπλεκτο δε ζοδων ὁ στεφανος, which I would translate, "having tinged (imbued or impregnated) with precious ointment a crown (or garland),—the crown was woven of roses."1823, Greville Ewing, “Appendix. A Vindication of the Explanations, in the Author’s Greek Grammar, and Greek and English Scripture Lexicon, on the Subject of Baptism, in a Letter to the Author, from a Literary Christian Friend.”, in An Essay on Baptism; being an Inquiry into the Meaning, Form, and Extent of the Administration, of that Ordinance. […], Glasgow: Printed at the University Press, for Wardlow and Cunninghame, […], →OCLC, page 198:
- As at Walden, in sultry dog-day weather, looking down through the woods on some of its bays which are not so deep but that the reflection from the bottom tinges them, its waters are of a misty bluish-green or glaucous color.1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 214:
- [N]ot, that such a fume, / Instead of giving way to time and health, / Should eat itself into the life of life, / As saffron tingeth flesh, blood, bones and all!1855, Robert Browning, “An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 4, page 95:
2
Figuratively To affect or alter slightly, particularly due to the actual or metaphorical influence of some element or thing.
- Hail! nurse of thought, with brow serene; / Who, as the sun, so wont, retires, / And leaves the sky to milder fires, / Tingest with shadowy forms the fading scene, [...]1812, George Dyer, “Ode X. On the Evening. Addressed to the Late Reverend Mr. Theophilus Lindsey.”, in Poetics: Or A Series of Poems, and of Disquisitions on Poetry, volume I, London: Printed [by J. M‘Creery] for J[oseph] Johnson and Co., →OCLC, stanza 1, page 68:
- For the very intensity of the light is all-consuming and it consumes this very vibration of the liar and his lie tingeing the word, the murderer and his murder tingeing their works!1982, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, “America, be on Guard!: Beloved Archangel Uriel: (February 1, 1981)”, in Where the Eagles Gather, volume 24, book 1, [Malibu, Calif.?]: The Summit Lighthouse, →ISBN, page 182:
1 more example
- When I think of the love my father never gave me I feel encased in a veil with steel threads. [...] Sometimes a happy thought can make me jump for joy, but I must be careful: if I jump too high, I'll bump into the veil. It doesn't hurt, but it always tinges my joy with sadness.2007, Kirk Douglas, “Hoops of Steel”, in Let’s Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 26:
3
To change slightly in shade due to the addition of colour; (by extension) to change slightly in quality due to the addition of some other thing.
- [H]is virtues, as well as imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from those of other men.1711 July 12 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SUNDAY, July 2, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 106; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 75:
- Taint is here a metaphorical expression. It means literally something which tinges. "The mean and malignant passions" are therefore, first of all, a substance which tinges. This substance which tinges "will creep."1835, [James Mill], “Section IV. Sir James on [Jeremy] Bentham.”, in A Fragment on Mackintosh: Being Strictures on Some Passages in the Dissertation by Sir James Mackintosh, Prefixed to the Encyclopædia Britannica, London: Printed for Baldwin and Cradock, […], →OCLC, pages 240–241: