What's the difference between alter and taint?

Alter


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make otherwise; to change in some respect, either partially or wholly; to vary; to modify.
  • (v. t.) To agitate; to affect mentally.
  • (v. t.) To geld.
  • (v. i.) To become, in some respects, different; to vary; to change; as, the weather alters almost daily; rocks or minerals alter by exposure.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Herpesviruses such as EBV, HSV, and human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6) have a marked tropism for cells of the immune system and therefore infection by these viruses may result in alterations of immune functions, leading at times to a state of immunosuppression.
  • (2) The process of sequence rearrangement appears to be a significant part of the evolution of the genome and may have a much greater effect on the evolution of the phenotype than sequence alteration by base substitution.
  • (3) The various evocational changes appear to form sets of interconnected systems and this complex network seems to embody some plasticity since it has been possible to suppress experimentally some of the most universal evocational events or alter their temporal order without impairing evocation itself.
  • (4) When chimeric animals were subjected to a lethal challenge of endotoxin, their response was markedly altered by the transferred lymphoid cells.
  • (5) Morphological alterations in the lungs of pheasants after prolonged high-dosage administration of bleomycin sulfate were studied by light and electron microscopy.
  • (6) Incubation with IFN alpha or IFN gamma for 24 h resulted in only modest cytokinetic alterations, and they did not modify the effects of FUra.
  • (7) We report a series of experiments designed to determine if agents and conditions that have been reported to alter sodium reabsorption, Na-K-ATPase activity or cellular structure in the rat distal nephron might also regulate the density or affinity of binding of 3H-metolazone to the putative thiazide receptor in the distal nephron.
  • (8) In dorsoventral (DV) reversed wings at both shoulder or flank level, the motor axons do not alter their course as they enter the graft.
  • (9) Neither spermidine nor spermine (0.5 mM) significantly altered [Ca2+]i.
  • (10) In addition to the changes associated with blood group A, we also found a decrease in sugar content, alterations in other antigens, and changes in the levels of several glycosyltransferases in cancerous tissues.
  • (11) When the concentration of thrombin or fibrinogen was altered systematically, mu T and mup were found to mirror each other except when the fibrinogen concentration was increased at low thrombin concentrations.
  • (12) Arteries treated with atrial natriuretic peptide showed no alterations in relaxation or cGMP content after incubation with pertussis toxin.
  • (13) These results could be explained by altered tissue blood flow and a decreased metabolic capacity of the liver in obese subjects.
  • (14) The sequential histopathologic alterations in femorotibial joints of partial meniscectomized male and female guinea pigs were evaluated at 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 weeks post-surgery.
  • (15) However, survival was closely related to the severity of the illness at the time of randomization and was not altered by shunting.
  • (16) Brain damage may be followed by a number of dynamic events including reactive synaptogenesis, rerouting of axons to unusual locations and altered axon retraction processes.
  • (17) Since the advance and return of sperm inside the tubes could facilitate the interaction of sperm with secretions participating in its maturation, the persistent infertility after vasectomy could be related to the contractile alteration that follows the excessive tubal distention.
  • (18) Sixteen patients (27%) manifested anomalies of the urinary tract: 12 had markedly altered kidneys, 8 of which were unilateral and ipsilateral to the diaphragmatic defect.
  • (19) Corticosterone (4 x 10(-5) M) did not alter the stimulation-evoked 3H-overflow at 1-30 Hz.
  • (20) The results show that the presence of histones does not alter the bimodal DNA binding process.

Taint


Definition:

  • (n.) A thrust with a lance, which fails of its intended effect.
  • (n.) An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner.
  • (v. i.) To thrust ineffectually with a lance.
  • (v. t.) To injure, as a lance, without breaking it; also, to break, as a lance, but usually in an unknightly or unscientific manner.
  • (v. t.) To hit or touch lightly, in tilting.
  • (v. t.) To imbue or impregnate with something extraneous, especially with something odious, noxious, or poisonous; hence, to corrupt; to infect; to poison; as, putrid substance taint the air.
  • (v. t.) Fig.: To stain; to sully; to tarnish.
  • (v. i.) To be infected or corrupted; to be touched with something corrupting.
  • (v. i.) To be affected with incipient putrefaction; as, meat soon taints in warm weather.
  • (n.) Tincture; hue; color; tinge.
  • (n.) Infection; corruption; deprivation.
  • (n.) A blemish on reputation; stain; spot; disgrace.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While ruling that there had been improper use of Schedule 7 powers, the judge commented: "It was clear that the Security Service, for entirely understandable reasons, was anxious if possible to get information which could not be regarded as tainted by torture allegations or which might confirm the propriety of a control order."
  • (2) But it has a tainted reputation: the 2007 foot and mouth outbreak was traced to a leak from Pirbright’s drains.
  • (3) Those wrongdoings taint a whole industry beyond the handful of people and that makes it a huge problem."
  • (4) One half hour following the ingestion of a possibly tainted antibiotic capsule, a 14 year-old female experienced acute onset of stiffness and weakness in her lower extremities.
  • (5) It might smell close to pot, he said, but would be “tainted” because of all the other items and plants like poison oak burning along with it.
  • (6) Attorneys for the family of Rice, who was killed by police officer Timothy Loehmann while holding a pellet gun in a park in Cleveland in November last year, said the pair of external reports had “tainted the grand jury process” that is considering criminal charges against Loehmann.
  • (7) A simple, cheap and rapid method for the quantitative determination of the boar taint substance, 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one, in pig adipose tissue is described.
  • (8) The scale scores the constitutional taints, the extent of the operation, the age, the eventual emergency, the special anaesthetic risk.
  • (9) The second is that almost eight years after voting in the conclave that chose Benedict XVI, Cardinal Keith O'Brien seems too irredeemably tainted by scandal and allegations of hypocrisy to find himself electing any future popes.
  • (10) Part of the difficulty in making the case may be that the euro has translated into brutal austerity on parts of the continent’s south, tainting the EU’s claims to be a levelling force.
  • (11) County prosecutors may have to review hundreds of current and past convictions involving the officers to determine if their contribution to such cases was tainted by racial bias.
  • (12) Police and social workers in Oxfordshire had a tainted perception that girls as young as 11 consented to sex with men who raped and brutalised them, an independent report into the failure to stop their exploitation has said.
  • (13) This can contribute to mitigating the dangerously polarising and alarmist discourse that views migrants as a threat to a society and its public order.” The senior European human rights official says he is worried that this “dominant political discourse which is tainted by alarmism” has led to the unsurprising outcome that the public consider immigration as the most important issue facing the country ahead of health, crime or the economy.
  • (14) … Like that in any way mitigates what was done to him.” Sharpton said police tried to taint Garner’s image after his death by quickly releasing his arrest record.
  • (15) However, the Portuguese does not believe that all Chelsea supporters should be tainted by the incident.
  • (16) Thiophenol and thiocresol which sporadically cause offensive sulfury taints in Wisconsin River fish were also found in river sediment.
  • (17) Hamid Karzai, who was then president, eventually forced the Americans out of Nerkh, but the lack of justice continues to taint residents’ view of his successor.
  • (18) The big society strikes me as a political construct, a tainted venture.
  • (19) Sanlu, the firm at the heart of the problems, knew the milk was tainted months before it told local officials.
  • (20) Blood supplies were eventually tainted out of this failure to take constructive action, with the resultant mass infection of segments of the Brazilian population.