tinge

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A small added amount of colour; (by extension) a small added amount of some other thing.

   “And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues—every stately or lovely emblazoning—the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; [...] all these are but subtile deceits, [...]”

   “Crimson—pure red, with a slight tinge of blue, giving it a purplish hue; the common color of red apples. / Scarlet—a bright red, with a slight tinge of yellow.”

   “The scholarly narratives, which maintain a strong claim for truth, will be shown to display variant versions of the same two basic modernist ingredients, scientism and nationalism (Zionism), enriched with tinges of personal non-scholarly knowledge of other human and social domains, such as political science, sociology, and psychology.”

   “Color-vision changes are complex with various manifestations, including frosting or white tinges on objects, decreased brightness or specific color loss.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The degree of vividness of a colour; hue, shade, tint.
3. (UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable)A draper's or clothier's markup.

   “A retail house […] are in the habit of cutting up, say, a fourpenny Croydon, into dozens; these dozens are marked four shillings and threepence, with one penny "tinge;" so that the privileged customer pays threepence more for the calico "marked up cheap!" […]”

verb

1. (transitive)To add a small amount of colour; to tint; (by extension) to add a small amount of some other thing.

   “[T]he water being ting'd red, cant it off, iterate it ſo long till the Vitriol tingeth the water no more.”

   “A Saline liquor therefore, mixt with another ting'd liquor, may alter the colour of it ſeveral ways, either by altering the refraction of the liquor in which the colour ſwims: or ſecondly by varying the refraction of the coloured particles, by uniting more intimately either with ſome particular corpuſcles of the tinging body, or with all of them, [...]”

   “Amalgam of Silver. [...] Colour ſilvery white or grey: Luſtre metallic: Creaks when cut. Sp[ecific] gravity above 10. Tinges gold white.”

   “In the following passage from Ælian, (lib. xiv. cap. 30.) βαψας seems to be used for denoting merely tinging or imbuing with perfume. The Persian monarch, says Ælian, στεφανον εις μυζον βαψας, επεπλεκτο δε ζοδων ὁ στεφανος, which I would translate, "having tinged (imbued or impregnated) with precious ointment a crown (or garland),—the crown was woven of roses."”

   “As at Walden, in sultry dog-day weather, looking down through the woods on some of its bays which are not so deep but that the reflection from the bottom tinges them, its waters are of a misty bluish-green or glaucous color.”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To affect or alter slightly, particularly due to the actual or metaphorical influence of some element or thing.

   “Hail! nurse of thought, with brow serene; / Who, as the sun, so wont, retires, / And leaves the sky to milder fires, / Tingest with shadowy forms the fading scene, [...]”

   “For the very intensity of the light is all-consuming and it consumes this very vibration of the liar and his lie tingeing the word, the murderer and his murder tingeing their works!”

   “When I think of the love my father never gave me I feel encased in a veil with steel threads. [...] Sometimes a happy thought can make me jump for joy, but I must be careful: if I jump too high, I'll bump into the veil. It doesn't hurt, but it always tinges my joy with sadness.”

3. (intransitive)To change slightly in shade due to the addition of colour; (by extension) to change slightly in quality due to the addition of some other thing.

   “[H]is virtues, as well as imperfections, are as it were tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly his, and distinguishes them from those of other men.”

   “Taint is here a metaphorical expression. It means literally something which tinges. "The mean and malignant passions" are therefore, first of all, a substance which tinges. This substance which tinges "will creep."”