Library / English Dictionary

TINCTURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(pharmacology) a medicine consisting of an extract in an alcohol solution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("tincture" is a kind of...):

medicament; medication; medicinal drug; medicine ((medicine) something that treats or prevents or alleviates the symptoms of disease)

Domain category:

materia medica; pharmacological medicine; pharmacology (the science or study of drugs: their preparation and properties and uses and effects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tincture"):

iodine; tincture of iodine (a tincture consisting of a solution of iodine in ethyl alcohol; applied topically to wounds as an antiseptic)

arnica (used especially in treating bruises)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color

Example:

after several trials he mixed the shade of pink that she wanted

Synonyms:

shade; tincture; tint; tone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("tincture" is a kind of...):

color; coloring; colour; colouring (a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tincture"):

mellowness (a soft shade of a color)

richness (a strong deep vividness of hue)

tinge; undertone (a pale or subdued color)

Derivation:

tincture (stain or tinge with a slight amount of a color)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An indication that something has been present

Example:

a tincture of condescension

Synonyms:

shadow; tincture; trace; vestige

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("tincture" is a kind of...):

indicant; indication (something that serves to indicate or suggest)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tincture"):

footprint (a trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A substance that colors or dyes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("tincture" is a kind of...):

color; coloring material; colour; colouring material (any material used for its color)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tincture"):

argent (a metal tincture used in heraldry to give a silvery appearance)

Derivation:

tincture (stain or tinge with a slight amount of a color)

tinge (color lightly)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stain or tinge with a slight amount of a color

Example:

The sky was tinctured red

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "tincture" is one way to...):

tinct; tinge; tint; touch (color lightly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tincture (a quality of a given color that differs slightly from another color)

tincture (a substance that colors or dyes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fill, as with a certain quality

Example:

The heavy traffic tinctures the air with carbon monoxide

Synonyms:

impregnate; infuse; instill; tincture

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "tincture" is one way to...):

fill; fill up; make full (make full, also in a metaphorical sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

The proposition, and demonstration, were fairly written on a thin wafer, with ink composed of a cephalic tincture.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A tincture made from the dried parts of Stellaria media, a widespread annual plant.

(Chickweed Tincture, NCI Thesaurus)

I had long since prepared my tincture; I purchased at once, from a firm of wholesale chemists, a large quantity of a particular salt which I knew, from my experiments, to be the last ingredient required; and late one accursed night, I compounded the elements, watched them boil and smoke together in the glass, and when the ebullition had subsided, with a strong glow of courage, drank off the potion.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And, as truth always forces its way into rational minds, so this honest worthy gentleman, who had some tincture of learning, and very good sense, was immediately convinced of my candour and veracity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I dwell the longer upon this subject from the desire I have to make the society of an English Yahoo by any means not insupportable; and therefore I here entreat those who have any tincture of this absurd vice, that they will not presume to come in my sight.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His employment, from his first coming into the academy, was an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food, by separating the several parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and scumming off the saliva.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And he proposed further, that by employing spiders, the charge of dyeing silks should be wholly saved; whereof I was fully convinced, when he showed me a vast number of flies most beautifully coloured, wherewith he fed his spiders, assuring us that the webs would take a tincture from them; and as he had them of all hues, he hoped to fit everybody’s fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous matter, to give a strength and consistence to the threads.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I desired you would let me know, by a letter, when party and faction were extinguished; judges learned and upright; pleaders honest and modest, with some tincture of common sense, and Smithfield blazing with pyramids of law books; the young nobility’s education entirely changed; the physicians banished; the female Yahoos abounding in virtue, honour, truth, and good sense; courts and levees of great ministers thoroughly weeded and swept; wit, merit, and learning rewarded; all disgracers of the press in prose and verse condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton, and quench their thirst with their own ink.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He added, how I had endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude; that he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason, which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me; that, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the swallow (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a much larger fowl); that this invention might be practised upon the younger Yahoos here, which besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life; that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which, as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I answered that our horses were trained up, from three or four years old, to the several uses we intended them for; that if any of them proved intolerably vicious, they were employed for carriages; that they were severely beaten, while they were young, for any mischievous tricks; that the males, designed for the common use of riding or draught, were generally castrated about two years after their birth, to take down their spirits, and make them more tame and gentle; that they were indeed sensible of rewards and punishments; but his honour would please to consider, that they had not the least tincture of reason, any more than the Yahoos in this country.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)