taint

IPA: tˈeɪnt

A contamination, decay or putrefaction, especially in food.
A tinge, trace or touch.
A mark of disgrace, especially on one's character; blemish.
(obsolete) Tincture; hue; colour.
(obsolete) Infection; corruption; deprivation.
(programming) A marker indicating that a variable is unsafe and should be subjected to additional security checks.
A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner.
(US, vulgar, slang) The perineum.
February 22 2010, Duchamanos, “Re: Huck Finn 2010-anyone going?”, in rec.sport.disc (Usenet):
2017, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, HBO:

(transitive) To contaminate or corrupt (something) with an external agent, either physically or morally.
(transitive) To spoil (food) by contamination.
(intransitive) To be infected or corrupted; to be touched by something corrupting.
(intransitive) To be affected with incipient putrefaction.
(transitive, computing, programming) To mark (a variable) as unsafe, so that operations involving it are subject to additional security checks.
(transitive, Australia, finance) To invalidate (a share capital account) by transferring profits into it.
(transitive) To damage, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
(intransitive) To thrust ineffectually with a lance.

Examples of "taint" in Sentences

A black and immeasurable taint is communicated to all who view it.
There was a certain taint of madness running in the veins of all of them.
Eyes may be the windows to the soul, but a taint is the doggie-door to pain.
One definition in the OED of the verb to taint is "to accuse of crime or dishonour."
But the taint is also spreading to the city itself, which is being portrayed in an unflattering and unsettling way.
One challenge in taint tracking is making it efficient, and the TaintDroid team focused a lot of work on using as few CPU cycles as possible.
Could be wrong: perhaps sexist roots in a word taint it even if it has a different meaning, but my opinion is that that use of “hysterical” is okay.
There is a young lady to accompany this gentleman, but she is even more loth [missing one letter] han himself to burden your Excellency with what she calls the taint of the rebel.