| v. t. | 1. | To attain; to get act; to hit. |
| 2. | (Old Law) To find guilty; to convict; - said esp. of a jury on trial for giving a false verdict. | |
| 3. | (Law) To subject (a person) to the legal condition formerly resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry, pronounced in respect of treason or felony; to affect by attainder. | |
| 4. | To accuse; to charge with a crime or a dishonorable act. | |
| 5. | To affect or infect, as with physical or mental disease or with moral contagion; to taint or corrupt. | |
| 6. | To stain; to obscure; to sully; to disgrace; to cloud with infamy. | |
| p. p. | 1. | Attainted; corrupted. |
| n. | 1. | A touch or hit. |
| 2. | (Far.) A blow or wound on the leg of a horse, made by overreaching. | |
| 3. | (Law) A writ which lies after judgment, to inquire whether a jury has given a false verdict in any court of record; also, the convicting of the jury so tried. | |
| 4. | A stain or taint; disgrace. See Taint. | |
| 5. | An infecting influence. |
| Verb | 1. | attaint - bring shame or dishonor upon; "he dishonored his family by committing a serious crime" |
| 2. | attaint - condemn by attainder; "the man was attainted" |
ATTAINT, English law. 1. Atinctus, attainted, stained, or blackened. 2. A
writ which lies to inquire whether a jury of twelve men gave a false
verdict. Bract. lib. 4, tr. 1, c. 134; Fleta, lib. 5, c. 22, Sec. 8.
2. It was a trial by jury of twenty-four men empanelled to try the
goodness, of a former verdict. 3 Bl. Com. 351; 3 Gilb. Ev. by Lofft, 1146.
See Assize.