Now only poet. [ad. L. tinct-us a dyeing, f. tingĕre to dye, stain.]
1. Color, hue, tint; coloring matter, dye: = TINCTURE sb. 1, 2.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iv. 91. There I see such blacke and grained spots, As will not leave their tinct. Ibid. (1611), Cymb., II. ii. 23. White and Azure lac’d With Blew of Heauens owne tinct.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tinct, or Teint (Lat.), a Colouring.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. xliv. Raising a world of gayer tinct and grace.
a. 1855. Miss Mitford, Poems, A Portrait. Such brilliant white, such rosy tinct, The apple blossom shows.
1861. Wynter, Soc. Bees, 500. The difference of colour is entirely owing to the tinct of the fluid which fills the hollow tube in each hair.
1884. Browning, Ferishtah, Bean-Stripe, 347. There’s no single tinct Would satisfy the eye’s desire to taste The secret of the diamond.
b. fig. A touch, trace, tinge (of something): = TINCTURE sb. 4.
1752. Foote, Taste, I. Wks. 1799, I. 8. If I do now and then add some tincts of antiquity to my pictures.
1794. Mrs. Piozzi, Synon., II. 195. That lovely season of life gives to every thing a tinct of its own greenness.
† 2. Alch. A transmuting elixir; = TINCTURE sb. 6. Obs.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., XII. i., in Ashm., Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652), 184. And Tynct in Projeccyon all Fyers to abyde.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 102. Platus himselfe, That knowes the tinct and multiplying med’cine. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., I. v. 37. Yet coming from him, that great Med’cine hath With his Tinct gilded thee.
