Chapter Stageplayer to Stale of S by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

4. To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison.

She stains the ripest virgins of her age.

Beau. & Fl.

That did all other beasts in beauty stain.

Spenser.

Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, — often used for making ornament windows.

Syn. — To paint; dye; blot; soil; sully; discolor; disgrace; taint. — Paint, Stain, Dye. These denote three different processes; the first mechanical, the other two, chiefly chemical. To paint a thing is so spread a coat of coloring matter over it; to stain or dye a thing is to impart color to its substance. To stain is said chiefly of solids, as wood, glass, paper; to dye, of fibrous substances, textile fabrics, etc.; the one, commonly, a simple process, as applying a wash; the other more complex, as fixing colors by mordants.

Stain
(Stain), v. i. To give or receive a stain; to grow dim.

Stain
(Stain), n.

1. A discoloration by foreign matter; a spot; as, a stain on a garment or cloth. Shak.

2. A natural spot of a color different from the gound.

Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains.

Pope.

3. Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach.

Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains.

Dryden.

Our opinion . . . is, I trust, without any blemish or stain of heresy.

Hooker.

4. Cause of reproach; shame. Sir P. Sidney.

5. A tincture; a tinge. [R.]

You have some stain of soldier in you.

Shak.

Syn. — Blot; spot; taint; pollution; blemish; tarnish; color; disgrace; infamy; shame.

Stainer
(Stain"er) n.

1. One who stains or tarnishes.

2. A workman who stains; as, a stainer of wood.

Stainless
(Stain"less), a. Free from stain; immaculate. Shak.

The veery care he took to keep his name
Stainless, with some was evidence of shame.

Crabbe.

Syn. — Blameless; spotless; faultless. See Blameless.

Stainlessly
(Stain"less*ly), adv. In a stainless manner.

Stair
(Stair) n. [OE. steir, steyer, AS. stger, from igan to ascend, rise. &radic164. See Sty to ascend.]

1. One step of a series for ascending or descending to a different level; — commonly applied to those within a building.