[f. TINT sb.1] trans. To impart a tint to; to color, esp. slightly or with delicate shades; to tinge. Also absol.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, i. The sun at length tinted the eastern clouds and the tops of the highest hills.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 22. Silken or hempen lines may be tinted by a decoction of oak bark.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 106. The sun … still tinted the clouds with red and purple.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xxvii. The beautiful colours of August tinting the great masses of rock.
1893. Westm. Gaz., 28 Feb., 3/1. I can’t call him a painter at all. A man of marvellous imagination, a surprising flow of lovely fancies—but a painter, no! He merely tints.
fig. 1799. Anna Seward, Sonn., i. Poet. Wks. 1810, III. 122. No more young Hope tints with her light and bloom The darkening scene.
1861. Holland, Less. Life, v. 72. All truth is tinted by the medium through which it passes.
b. techn. (See quot.)
1857. Youmans, Handbk. Househ. Sc., § 161. By the addition of black the red is said to be shaded, by the addition of white it is tinted.
c. intr. for pass. To become tinted or colored.
1892. Pict. World, 7 May, 32/3. The forced leaves … begin to tint in about three hours.
Hence Tinted ppl. a., colored, tinged, dyed; tinted drawing = tint-drawing: see TINT sb.1 3.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, i. 15. Mr. Sandby … denominated this manner tinted drawing.
1831. Williams, Life & Corr. Sir T. Lawrence, II. 351, note. The tinted drawings of Lawrence are calculated to give the finest feelings to the imagination.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. xi. A face … like a tinted statue.
1905. Daily Chron., 8 May, 8/5. Talking of make-up reminds me of what we now call ‘tinted’ hair.
