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Webster 1913 Edition


Tincture

Tinc′ture

,
Noun.
[L.
tinctura
a dyeing, from
tingere
,
tinctum
, to tinge, dye: cf. OE.
tainture
,
teinture
, F.
teinture
, L.
tinctura
. See
Tinge
.]
1.
A tinge or shade of color; a tint;
as, a
tincture
of red
.
2.
(Her.)
One of the metals, colors, or furs used in armory.
☞ There are two metals: gold, called or, and represented in engraving by a white surface covered with small dots; and silver, called argent, and represented by a plain white surface. The colors and their representations are as follows: red, called gules, or a shading of vertical lines; blue, called azure, or horizontal lines; black, called sable, or horizontal and vertical lines crossing; green, called vert, or diagonal lines from dexter chief corner; purple, called purpure, or diagonal lines from sinister chief corner. The furs are ermine, ermines, erminois, pean, vair, counter vair, potent, and counter potent. See Illustration in Appendix.
3.
The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a solvent; an extract of a part of the substance of a body communicated to the solvent.
4.
(Med.)
A solution (commonly colored) of medicinal substance in alcohol, usually more or less diluted; spirit containing medicinal substances in solution.
☞ According to the United States Pharmacopoeia, the term tincture (also called alcoholic tincture, and spirituous tincture) is reserved for the alcoholic solutions of nonvolatile substances, alcoholic solutions of volatile substances being called spirits.
Ethereal tincture
,
a solution of medicinal substance in ether.
5.
A slight taste superadded to any substance;
as, a
tincture
of orange peel
.
6.
A slight quality added to anything; a tinge;
as, a
tincture
of French manners
.
All manners take a
tincture
from our own.
Pope.
Every man had a slight
tincture
of soldiership, and scarcely any man more than a slight
tincture
.
Macaulay.

Tinc′ture

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Tinctured
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Tincturing
.]
1.
To communicate a slight foreign color to; to tinge; to impregnate with some extraneous matter.
A little black paint will
tincture
and spoil twenty gay colors.
I. Watts.
2.
To imbue the mind of; to communicate a portion of anything foreign to; to tinge.
The stain of habitual sin may thoroughly
tincture
all our soul.
Barrow.

Webster 1828 Edition


Tincture

TINC'TURE

,
Noun.
[L. tinctura.]
1.
The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a menstruum; or an extract of a part of the substance of a body, communicated to the menstruum. Hence,
2.
In medicine, a spiritus solution of such of the proximate principles of vegetables and animals as are soluble in pure alcohol or proof-spirit; wine or spirits containing medicinal substances in solution.
3.
A tinge or shade of color; as a tincture of red.
4.
Slight taste superadded to any substance; as a tincture or orange-peel.
5.
Slight quality added to any thing; as a tincture of French manners.
All manners take a tincture from our own.

TINC'TURE

,
Verb.
T.
To tinge; to communicate a slight foreign color to; to impregnate with some extraneous matter.
A little black paint will tincture and spoil twenty gay colors.
1.
To imbue the mind; to communicate a portion of any thing foreign; as a mind tinctured with skepticism.

Definition 2024


tincture

tincture

English

Noun

tincture (plural tinctures)

  1. A pigment or other substance that colours or dyes.
  2. A tint, or an added colour.
  3. (heraldry) A colour or metal used in the depiction of a coat of arms.
  4. An alcoholic extract of plant material, used as a medicine.
  5. (humorous) A small alcoholic drink.
  6. An essential characteristic.
    • 1924, ARISTOTLE. Metaphysics. Translated by W. D. Ross. Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA: The Classical Library, 2001. Book 1, Part 6.
      for the earlier thinkers had no tincture of dialectic
  7. The finer and more volatile parts of a substance, separated by a solvent; an extract of a part of the substance of a body communicated to the solvent.
  8. A slight taste superadded to any substance.
    a tincture of orange peel
  9. A slight quality added to anything; a tinge.
    • Alexander Pope
      All manners take a tincture from our own.
    • Macaulay
      Every man had a slight tincture of soldiership, and scarcely any man more than a slight tincture.

Translations

Verb

tincture (third-person singular simple present tinctures, present participle tincturing, simple past and past participle tinctured)

  1. to stain or impregnate (something) with colour; (figuratively) to tinge; to taint
    • 1674 John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V, 277-85,
      Six wings he wore, to shade / His lineaments divine; the pair that clad / Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast / With regal ornament; the middle pair / Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round / Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold / And colours dipt in Heaven; the third his feet / Shadowed from either heel with feathered mail, / Sky-tinctured grain.
    • 1740, David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Part III, Section IX,
      The passions of fear and hope may arise when the chances are equal on both sides, and no superiority can be discovered in the one above the other. Nay, in this situation the passions are rather the strongest, as the mind has then the least foundation to rest upon, and is tossed with the greatest uncertainty. Throw in a superior degree of probability to the side of grief, you immediately see that passion diffuse itself over the composition, and tincture it into fear.
    • 1797, William Blake, Vala, or The Four Zoas, in W. H. Stevenson (ed.), Blake: The Complete Poems, London: Routledge, 3rd edition, 2007, "Night the Seventh," 759-60, p. 413,
      And first he drew a line upon the walls of shining heaven, / And Enitharmon tinctured it with beams of blushing love.
    • 1820, Letter from Joseph Severn to John Taylor, Rome, 24 December, 1820,
      Now observe, my dear Sir, I don’t for a moment push my little but honest Religious faith upon poor Keats, except as far as my feelings go, but these I try to keep from him. I fall into his views sometimes to quiet him and tincture them with a somewhat of mine, []
    • 1911, The Mining World, Volume 34, p. 73,
      No definite system was used for testing the tincturing and spreading powers of the pigments, or for testing their permanence.
    • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 10,
      As it is, one must turn to some authority not liable to the charge of being tinctured with the Biblical element.
    • 1982, Saul Bellow, "Him with His Foot in His Mouth" in Collected Stories, New York: Viking, 2001, p. 379,
      They have too many books, most of them burdensome. The crowded shelves give off an inviting, consoling, seductive odor that is also tinctured faintly with something pernicious, with poison and doom.
    • 1998, Nadine Gordimer, House Gun, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. 212,
      Which one of the carefully chosen assessors, one white, one sufficiently tinctured to pass as black, was it who was speaking []
  2. To soak (an organic substance) in alcohol or another liquid to produce a tincture.
    • 1995, Deb Soule, The Woman's Handbook of Herbal Healing: A Guide to Natural Remedies, New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011, Chapter 2,
      I prefer to tincture each herb separately and mix combinations as I need them.
    • 2009, Greg A. Marley, Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi, Down East Books,
      At its simplest, tincturing involves chopping or grinding the source material as finely as possible, covering it with ethyl (grain) alcohol, and allowing the mixture to macerate, or steep, for two weeks or more.

Translations

Anagrams


Latin

Participle

tinctūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of tinctūrus