tincture

noun

1. (obsolete)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “[O]ur daintie dames and fine ladies have begun to ſet their mind upon this colour [amber], and have placed it in the third ranke of rich tincture: vvhereby vve may ſee there is no ſuperfluitie and diſorder in the vvorld, but it hath a pretence and cloake of ſome precious name or other.”

   “[A]ll both men and vvomen paint or embroider their skinnes vvith Iron pennes, putting indelible tinctures thereunto.”

   “'Tis thus, ſays [André] Dacier, that vve lay a full Colour, vvhen the VVool has taken the vvhole Tincture, and drunk in as much of the Dye as it can receive.”

   “I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.”

2. (broadly)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “'Tis not a Sett of Features, or Complexion, / The Tincture of a Skin, that I admire. / Beauty ſoon grovvs familiar to the Lover, / Fades in his Eye, and palls upon the Senſe.”

3. (broadly, figuratively)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “[A]fter the firſt comming of Hengiſt they had liued here C.L. yeers by the cõmon account vvithout tincture of true religion: […]”

   “Men are oppressed with regard to their way of speaking and acting, instead of having their thought bent upon what they should do or say; and by that means bury a capacity for great things, by their fear of failing in indifferent things. This, perhaps, cannot be called affectation; but it has some tincture of it, at least so far, as that their fear of erring in a thing of no consequence, argues they would be too much pleased in performing it.”

   “Ernst August has some tincture of soldiership at this time (Marlborough Wars, and the like), as all his kindred had; […]”

   “His [Plato's] divergence from the Pythagoreans in making the One and the Numbers separate from things, and his introduction of the Forms, were due to his inquiries in the region of definitory formulae (for the earlier thinkers had no tincture of dialectic), […]”

4. (broadly)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.
5. (obsolete)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “This ſtone [“cyanos” or chrysoprase] is very apt to bee counterfeited, and eſpecially by tincture: the invention vvhereof is aſcribed to a king of Ægypt, vvho vvas highly honoured for beeing the firſt that gave a colour to it.”

6. (figuratively, obsolete)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “a tincture of orange peel”

   “And yet the iron here vvrought, is not in every place of like goodneſſe, but generally more brittle than is the Spaniſh iron, vvhether it bee by the nature, or tincture and temper thereof.”

   “Her look, her voice, her gesture, and whole behaviour is truly feminine. A goodness mixed with fear gives a tincture to all her behaviour.”

   “The greatest genius which runs through the Arts and Sciences, takes a kind of tincture from them, and falls unavoidably into imitation.”

   “All Manners take a tincture from our own, / Or come diſcolour'd thro' our Paſſions ſhovvn, / Or Fancy's beam inlarges, multiplies, / Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thouſand dyes.”

7. (figuratively, obsolete)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “To offend againſt ſo gracious a Patron, vvould add a Tincture to our Diſobedience; yet ſuch is the Iniquity of our Condition, that vve are forced to defer our Gratitude.”

8. (obsolete)Senses relating to colour, and to dipping something into a liquid.

   “Rollo ſonne of a Daniſh Potentate, […] made tranſmigration into France, and there, after ſome martiall diſcords, honored in holy tincture of Chriſtianity vvith the name of Robert, […]”

9. Scientific and alchemical senses.

   “tincture of iodine;   tincture of cannabis;   tincture of opium”

   “Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.”

10. (broadly, humorous)Scientific and alchemical senses.

    “Weathers made them all have just one little tincture at his expense and promised to meet them later on at Mulligan's in Poolbeg Street.”

11. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    “For vvhat is ſilke but eu'n a Quinteſſence, / Made vvithout hands beyond al humane ſenſe? / A quinteſſence? nay vvel it may be call'd, / A deathleſſe tincture, ſent vs from the skies, / VVhoſe colour ſtands, vvhose gloſſe is ne're appalld, […]”

12. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    “[T]he pureſt part [of the sap], as moſt apt and ready, recedes, vvith its due Tinctures, from the ſaid Cortical Body, to the Lignous. VVhich Lignous Body likevviſe ſuper-inducing its ovvn proper Tinctures into the ſaid Sap; […]”

    “And I do perſvvade my ſelf, that the common Devv exhaled from ſome ſorts of Herbs or VVeeds, but eſpecially from the common Graſs, carries vvith it the Seminal Tincture of the Herb, vvhich being again deſcended by Devvs or Rain upon the bare and naked Earth, re-produceth the ſame Species: […]”

13. Scientific and alchemical senses.

    “[C]ome forth, / And taſt the ayre of Palaces, eate, drinke / The toyles of Empricks, and their boaſted practiſe: / Tincture of Pearle, an Corall, Gold, and Amber; […]”

    “VVhy, by his skill, / Of vvhich he has left you the inheritance, / Here in a pot: this little gally pot, / Of tincture, high roſe tincture.”

    “'Tis not unlikely that Grain may afford its Tincture, and that excellent Beer and Ale may be made thereof vvithout malting, but I ſhall leave theſe things to experience.”

verb

1. (transitive)To colour or stain (something) with, or as if with, a dye or pigment.

   “[T]hey are rich habilimented, their heads rounded vvith a golden caule: their cheekes tinctured vvith Vermillion, their noſes and eares hung vvith Ievvels of price and bigneſſe, and about their faces (tied to the chin) a rope of orient pearle of exceeding value, if not counterfeit: […]”

   “[T]his very River Nilus that runs novv into the Mediterranean is the River that vvill run tinctured with bloud three hundred years hence, though the vvater is not the ſame novv and then nor of the ſame Quality: […]”

   “The VVater of theſe is like to that of Baden in Auſtria; it leaves a vvhite Sediment upon the Moſs and places it vvaſheth, and tinctureth metals black: […]”

   “And a fair carpet, woven of home-spun wool, / But tinctured daintily with florid hues, / For seemliness and warmth, on festive days, / Covered the smooth blue slabs of mountain stone / With which the parlour-floor, in simplest guise / Of pastoral home-steads, had been long inlaid.”

2. (figuratively, transitive)Followed by with: to add to or impregnate (something) with (a slight amount of) an abstract or (obsolete) physical quality; to imbue, to taint, to tinge.

   “Of fulgent beautie; but ſo pure a mind, / As if tinctur'd from Heaven, and ſo devin'd.”

   “Chriſt dravveth my VVill into himſelf, and cloateth it vvith his Blood and Death, and tictureth it vvith the higheſt Tincture of the Divine Povver: Thus it is changed into an Angelical Image, and getteth a Divine Life.”

   “The remainder, […] thus retreats, that is, by the continual appulſe of the Sap, is in part carried off into the Cortical Body back again, the Sap vvhereof it novv tinctures into good Aliment: […]”

   “VVhile in the mean time there iſſued out on the Eaſt-ſide a ſtrong VVind, but pure and refreſhing, vvhich dividing into ſeveral parts that turned round became ſo many innocuous VVhirl-vvinds of ſincere Air, tinctured only vvith a cool refreſhing ſmell, as if it had paſſed over ſome large field of Lilies and Roſes.”

   “The paſſions of fear and hope may ariſe vvhen the chances are equal on both ſides, and no ſuperiority can be diſcover'd 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 toſs'd vvith the greateſt uncertainty. Throvv 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.”

3. (transitive)To dissolve (a substance) in ethanol or some other solvent to produce a medicinal tincture.

   “Fill a glass jar full of plant matter, leaving an inch of space. (I prefer to tincture each herb separately and mix combinations as I need them.) Completely cover plants with 100-proof vodka, brandy, or vinegar and secure the lid tightly.”

4. (intransitive, rare)To have a taint or tinge of some quality.

   “The portrait of the Author, prefixed, is engraved from a drawing by another of his friends, done from memory; it is like, but a likeneſs that tinctures of the prejudice of friendſhip.”

   “Which one of the carefully chosen assessors, one white, one sufficiently tinctured to pass as black, was it who was speaking—both sat, either side of the judge, silent henchmen.”