Home British & World English tint

Definition of tint in English:

tint

noun

  • 1A shade or variety of a colour.

    ‘the sky was taking on an apricot tint’
    • ‘Adding tints and shades introduces variety through value.’
    • ‘Certain tints and shades of colour can be chosen as well as a special pattern or a special blend of fibres to make it lighter or heavier.’
    • ‘Prodigal servings of pure saturated (often fluorescent) color are fattened further with a rich welter of tints, tones and shades.’
    • ‘Everything you ever wanted to know about colour is here: from complementary colours, colour combinations, shades, tints and contrasts - the list goes on.’
    • ‘Golden tints, honey and apricots are better on medium skin tones.’
    • ‘Males tend to wear armor suits in shiny silver colors that covered their chests and private spots, while females dressed up with silk-like materials covering them from head to toe that were part translucent with a wide variety of tints.’
    • ‘You could even include questions about tints and shades like pink and maroon, and a question about low intensity, such as blue-gray.’
    • ‘Finally, the artists must fill in the shapes outside the circle with a variety of tints and lowered intensities.’
    • ‘A light tint of red shaded his cheeks, as he looked away.’
    • ‘We are never going to recapture earlier times, of course, and there is a rosy tint to most parents' spectacles.’
    • ‘Include tints and shades of each analogous color.’
    • ‘Four-colour process gives you the flexibility and life-like realism of millions of colours, hues and tints.’
    • ‘His eyes were so piercing, a beautiful hazel color, with tints and shades of brown, and green flecks scattered.’
    • ‘Chekhov, wrote Nabokov, ‘keeps all his words in the same dim light and of the same exact tint of grey, a tint between the colour of an old fence and that of a low cloud’.’
    • ‘Students could only use warm or cool colors depending on the color paper chosen, and they were encouraged to mix tertiary colors, tints and shades.’
    • ‘The structure is surprisingly complex, viewing the same events from different perspectives, which Zhang helpfully colour-codes in ravishing washes of primary tints.’
    • ‘In southern climates, the harsher, brighter sunlight will cause pale tints to appear washed out.’
    • ‘The sun was lowering, bathing the whole atmosphere with a pink tint, coloring the scenery with life, adding substance to the air itself.’
    • ‘Purchase broccoli with a deep green or deep green with a purple tint.’
    • ‘Unbeknownst to them, a pair of brown eyes with a purple tint was watching them intently.’
    shade, colour, tone, hue, tinge, cast, tincture, flush, blush
    View synonyms
    1. 1.1Printing An area of faint even colour printed as a half-tone, used for highlighting overprinted text.
    2. 1.2A set of parallel engraved lines to give uniform shading.
      ‘In England the most engaging lithographer was Whistler, who used delicate lines and tints in his Nocturnes of the Thames.’
    3. 1.3A trace of something.
      ‘a tint of glamour’
      • ‘This sent a crack through the ground as the energy, now hinted only by a tint of velvet in the air, rushed forward and connected with Sam, sending him into the far wall.’
      • ‘In the latter case there seems to be more than a tint of historic bitterness, dating back to the ill-fated Supporters Club of seven seasons ago and more.’
      • ‘A tint of sorrow creeps into my mind as I recall the ‘good old times’ that are gone, never to return.’
      • ‘If there is a tint of humanities in me it's from Underwood family.’
      • ‘Some of his solos have a tint of the classical, but, in addition, he has worked with rock bands.’
      • ‘‘You'll be with me,’ he grunted, and his tenor voice, so neutral and refined, had a tint of disgust in his words.’
      • ‘‘Very helpful,’ she said, with a tint of derisiveness, and opened the door.’
      • ‘But there was still a tint of fear.’
      • ‘She introduced herself to them, and quickly covered the necromancer that was among them with many charms, most of which had a tint of necromancy in them.’
      • ‘She breathed the cold air with a tint of peculiarity.’
      • ‘But whenever I looked into his magnetic eyes, I saw a tint of romance.’
      • ‘‘That's because the fog is harder to control,’ answered Jade with a tint of sarcasm.’
      • ‘Jenna was wearing a tint of make up although with her complexion she didn't need it and her hair was done with half her hair up in a topsy tail while the rest hung down the nape of her neck.’
      • ‘It had a tint of glitter, and it sparkled with every turn.’
      • ‘‘I appreciate the gesture, but I can do on my own,’ I replied with a tint of sarcasm.’
      • ‘It had a tint of sarcasm, but I knew that it was just instinct for her since I had probably played the obviously guilty son so many times.’
      • ‘Outside, the air was fair, with a tint of some lost season's chill.’
      • ‘The fact that an anti-war movement even exists, is gaining strength, and dares to have a tint of radical coloring must boggle their minds.’
      • ‘He had dark spiky brown hair that made it look like he just woke up every time you saw him and his deep hazel eyes filled with anger and hate, but a tint of heart.’
      • ‘Instead of returning his smile, she widened her expressive eyes, eyes that conveyed a mix of surprise and a tint of fear.’

  • 2An artificial dye for colouring the hair.

    • ‘The orange tint coloured her hair and made her skin look ill, but I recognised her.’
    • ‘Some other things that can cause a very bad hair day include over processing your hair with color, tints, bleach or perms.’
    • ‘It is a way of life, whether it be a change in colour, tints, hairpieces or whatever.’
    • ‘For more information about tints and dyes, circle the corresponding number on the reader service card.’
    • ‘At a very simplified level, hair coloring is all about finding the right amount of color to add or subtract from your current hair tint.’
    dye, colourant, colouring, wash
    View synonyms
    1. 2.1An application of hair dye.
      ‘peering into the mirror to see if any white hair showed after her last tint’
      • ‘Other than a haircut and lash tint every two months-ish, that's about it.’

verb

[with object]

  • 1Colour (something) slightly; tinge.

    ‘her skin was tinted with delicate colour’
    • ‘I wanted a blue dye wash over it so that the whole cover was tinted a heavy blue colour with the title in white.’
    • ‘It was this colour that tinted his broad moustache, and the short, precise goatee on his chin.’
    • ‘It was extremely low to the ground, with blazing red paint and black tinted windows.’
    • ‘The moon was just beyond his visitor, its glow tinting the blazing red hair with silver specks of light.’
    • ‘She had dark locks of hair that were tinted with gray and her eyes spoke volumes in silver.’
    • ‘She was clearly in her middle ages, with golden blond hair tinted with gray and worried brown eyes.’
    • ‘Her head was directly under a lampshade, and warm light fell on her hair tinting it reddish-gold.’
    • ‘The summer sun caught her light brown hair and turned it into a place of shadows, tinted with glints of gold.’
    • ‘Strongly tinting any surface it touches, heavy-bodied and opaque, it recalls the industrial, bringing to mind, among other things, the red lead paint used to prime steel.’
    • ‘John turned to look at Anna, the falling sun tinting her a light orange.’
    • ‘The pale, shy light of dawn was tinting her brown-coloured tarpaulin tent.’
    • ‘I'd said that once before, long ago, but that hadn't been tinted with the undertones I was feeling now.’
    • ‘Her eyes blazed with a new and different kind of sadness, the kind that is tinted with anger and regret.’
    • ‘Should your monitor display images that are heavily tinted, check both ends of its cable connection.’
    • ‘Was there some ulterior motive behind his innocent smile that was tinted from within?’
    • ‘Glasses are usually needed and can be tinted to ease pain from too much sunlight.’
    • ‘The day was overcast, so the light was tinted with a peculiar green-grey.’
    • ‘To his extreme surprise, Ramirez looked confused, and then pleased, a very faint blush tinting his cheeks a light pink.’
    • ‘Most tinted and mirrored films include a coating to block the transmission of ultraviolet light.’
    • ‘When the sun fell on it at just the right angle, it appeared tinted with light blue.’
    1. 1.1Dye (someone's hair) with a tint.
      ‘they spent hours having their hair tinted and set’
      • ‘She looked to be around my age with very dark brown hair that was tinted in maroon.’
      • ‘He wears jeans with holes in fashionable places, and amber highlights tint his strategically mussed hair.’
      • ‘A tall, imposing man, it is hard to believe that he began his adult life as a trainee women's hairdresser, or that he was known within the game for the amount of time he spent tinting his hair.’
      • ‘Her blonde hair was tinted with a bit of light brown and put in beautiful loose curls that Nicole adored.’
      • ‘The screen was turned on again and it showed Jordan pass by a boy her age with brown and red tinted hair.’
      • ‘The only thing wrong with that picture was the fact that he had wild red hair, tinted with bits of black.’
      • ‘Bill looks slim and well-tanned and has a neat short haircut that has been tinted blond.’
      • ‘In addition, chemical processes were used to tint, wave, curl, straighten, and condition the hair.’

Origin

Early 18th century alteration (perhaps influenced by Italian tinta) of obsolete tinct ‘to colour, tint’, from Latin tinctus ‘dyeing’, from tingere ‘to dye or colour’.

Pronunciation

tint

/tɪnt/