attaint

• atteint

From Old French ateint, past participle of ateindre; in some senses influenced by taint.

• IPA^(key): /əˈteɪnt/
• Rhymes: -eɪnt

attaint (comparative more attaint, superlative most attaint)

1. (obsolete) Convicted, attainted.
2. (obsolete) Attainted; corrupted.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Part 5,

     My tender youth was never yet attaint

     With any passion of inflaming love,

attaint (third-person singular simple present attaints, present participle attainting, simple past and past participle attainted)

1. (archaic) To subject to attainder; to condemn (someone) to death and extinction of all civil rights.
2. (archaic) To subject to calumny; to accuse of a crime or dishonour.
   • 1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, New York: Vintage, 1956, Appendix, p. 405,

     CHARLES STUART. Attainted and proscribed by name and grade in his British regiment.

3. (now rare) To taint; to corrupt, sully.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:

     Amoret right fearefull was and faint, / Lest she with blame her honor should attaint [...].

   • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Chapter 34,

     Jem felt that his own character had been attainted; and that to many it might still appear suspicious.

attaint (plural attaints)

1. (archaic) A blow or strike, especially in jousting.
   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Chapter 8,

     This politic selection did not alter the fortune of the field, the challengers were still successful: one of their antagonists was overthrown, and both the others failed in the “attaint”, that is, in striking the helmet and shield of their antagonist firmly and strongly, with the lance held in a direct line, so that the weapon might break unless the champion was overthrown.

   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 484:

     At the moment of impact, the king’s eyes are open, his body braced for the atteint; he takes the blow perfectly, its force absorbed by a body securely armoured, moving in the right direction, moving at the right speed.

2. A wound on the leg of a horse caused by a blow
3. (obsolete, law) The giving of a false verdict by a jury; the conviction of such a jury, and the reversal of the verdict