tarnished 1 of 2

tarnished

2 of 2

verb

past tense of tarnish

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tarnished
Adjective
  • Some of his takes were too unpolished for prime time.
    Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2025
  • And overall, many of the top-20-caliber players are unpolished prospects who will be drafted more for potential than production.
    Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 5 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • But others argue these budget controls are ensuring Connecticut won’t return to the 2010s, a decade marred by frequent annual deficits and some of the largest tax hikes in state history.
    Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 4 Jan. 2025
  • The couple welcomed two children, True, 6, and Tatum, 2, but their romance was marred by Thompson's multiple cheating scandals.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 4 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Amazon objected to the 2022 warehouse election results, alleging the Amazon Labor Union and the federal labor board had tainted the vote.
    CBS News, CBS News, 23 Dec. 2024
  • Some see all Russians and their cultural heritage as irredeemably tainted by imperial thinking, a view heavily influenced by post-colonial studies in American academia.
    Andrew Higgins, New York Times, 22 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • That transition can be rough regardless of the next step on their life’s journey, but a particularly dingy college dorm can take the experience from bad to worse.
    Madeline Fitzgerald, Quartz, 9 Apr. 2025
  • The basics remain the same: Four players take control of survivors attempting to escape a dingy hellhole, while a fifth takes the role of a roaming psychopath trying to kill them.
    Luke Winkie, Vulture, 1 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Drugs, success, and conflicting personalities had poisoned members’ relationships.
    Aaron Gilbreath, SPIN, 31 Dec. 2024
  • The iconic American bird was almost wiped out in the 1960s due to the pesticide DDT, which poisoned the eagles and made their eggs weak and flimsy.
    Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • In a dim, cavelike hut where Nam lives with his mother, Hoa (Nguyen Thi Nga), a TV blares the names of soldiers who were killed during the war, in the nineteen-seventies, but whose remains were never found.
    Justin Chang, New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2025
  • OLEDs completely avoid this with their ability to individually brighten, dim, and turn off pixels.
    Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 1 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Advertisement Advertisement In the natural pecking order of things, friendships can become lackluster.
    Priya Vulchi, Time, 9 Apr. 2025
  • The initial drop in mortgage rates last week had housing watchers cheering a potential boost to the lackluster spring market.
    Diana Olick, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The collection also includes modular ribbed halters and tanks, featuring ombre effects transitioning between black, drab and white.
    Renan Botelho, Footwear News, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Her white dress and defiant smile stand out in a crowd of drab grayscale suits and uniforms.
    Eli Wizevich, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Mar. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Tarnished.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tarnished. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.

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