[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To impart a tincture or dye to; to dye; to color, tinge, imbue. (Chiefly in pa. pple.)
1616. [see tincturing below].
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 147. Cheekes tinctured with Vermillion.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 310. The River that will run tinctured with bloud three hundred years hence.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., I. I. i. 2. This Juice, which Wooll and Purple-Silk … were tinctur’d with.
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, VII. 188. Homespun wool But tinctured daintily with florid hues.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 325. One of the latest fluids that becomes tinctured is the milk in icteric wet-nurses.
1828. Moore, ’Tis sweet to think, ii. It will tincture Love’s plume with a different hue.
2. transf. and fig. To imbue or impregnate with a quality; to communicate some quality to; to affect, tinge, taint. (Chiefly in pa. pple., const. with.) † a. with a physical quality, as smell or taste. Obs.
1668. H. More, Div. Dial., V. xxxviii. (1713), 515. Innocuous Whirl-winds of sincere Air, tinctured only with a cool refreshing smell.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, ii. § 23. The remainder … is in part carried off into the Cortical Body back again, the Sap whereof it now tinctures into good Aliment.
1678. R. Barclay, Apol. Quakers, VII. xii. 237. Water may be capable to be tinctured with uncleanness.
1820. Mair, Tyro’s Dict. (ed. 10), Aluminosus,… tinctured with, smelling or tasting of alum.
b. with a mental or moral quality or character; with reference to knowledge (pass. with with), to have a smattering of. (In early use often with allusion to alchemy: cf. prec. 6.)
1636. Heywood, Love’s Mistr., Prol. So pure a mind, As if tinctur’d from Heaven.
1651. Wittie, trans. Primrose’s Pop. Err., I. xiii. 47. He professed himselfe to be a Physician (although he was but lightly tinctured with the knowledge of Physick).
1662. Sparrow, trans. Behme’s Rem. Wks., Apol. conc. Perfect., 147. I must be Tinctured or else I cannot be Transmuted; If Christ do not Tincture me with his Bloud, then my Holy Paradise-Life remaineth faded.
1718. Freethinker, No. 7, ¶ 2. His Conversation was tinctured throughout with the Ancient Mythology.
1878. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxv. 1. The prayer is evidently tinctured with a consciousness of unworthiness.
c. intr. for pass. To take or have a tinge of something. rare–1.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsemen (1809), 15. It [a portrait] is like, but a likeness that tinctures of the prejudice of friendship.
† 3. To deposit (one metal upon another). rare.
1670. Specif. Pr. Rupert’s Patent, 2. A new Invencion or Art of Tincturing Copper vpon Iron.
1679. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 235. Of tincturing of Copper upon Iron as to him or them shall seem meet.
Hence Tincturing vbl. sb.
1616. T. Tuke (title), A Treatise against Painting and Tincturing of Men and Women.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 110. Hangings, pictures, carvings, guildings, and tincturings.
1679. [see 3 above].
1902. W. M. Alexander, Demonic Possession in N. T., iii. 65. [They] may contain a tincturing of medical lore.
