tainted
- 01 C1 Advanced
damaged in a way that makes people lose trust or respect, such as a reputation or a result.
corrupted in a moral or ethical sense; used when a process or reputation is compromised by dishonesty.
Simple“The athlete's victory was tainted by rumors that he had cheated during the race.”
In context“The politician found it impossible to regain public trust after his career was tainted by the bribery scandal.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
describes information or evidence that cannot be trusted because it was handled badly.
originating from an untrusted source or compromised during collection, rendering the data or evidence invalid.
Simple“The judge ruled that the evidence was tainted because the police did not follow the correct rules.”
In context“The entire dataset was considered tainted after researchers discovered that the sensors had been improperly calibrated for months.”
UsageOften used in legal contexts regarding evidence or in computing regarding data.
Synonyms
“Could the bullhead's habitat have been tainted by pollutants stirred up during the hurricane?”
“But the house is tainted by memories of her alcoholic father, whose conditioning has shaped her in ways she can’t escape.”
From taint + -ed.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.