tarnish

UK/ˈtɑːnɪʃ//ˈtɑɹnɪʃ/

tarnish noun: oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.

Noun

tarnish (usually uncountable, plural tarnishes)

(usually) Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.
- Precipitated calcium carbonate, a very fine powdery form, is used as a basis for many tooth powders and pastes. As whiting it finds a wide use in cleaning metals of their tarnishes.1918, Hannah Teresa Rowley, Mrs. Helen Louise (Wales) Farrell, Principles of Chemistry Applied to the Household
- Limiting the use of silver to special occasions might invite tarnish unless the pieces are carefully protected.1987 July 30, Joseph Deitch, “Removing Tarnish From Silverware”, in The New York Times

Verb

tarnish (third-person singular simple present tarnishes, present participle tarnishing, simple past and past participle tarnished)

(intransitive) To oxidize or discolor due to oxidation.
- Careful storage of silver will prevent it from tarnishing.
Synonyms:

oxidate, oxygenize
(transitive) To compromise, damage, soil, or sully.
- He is afraid that she will tarnish his reputation if he disagrees with her.
- I have next shown you the Greeks, and " the wisdom" of their philosophy, often travesting, sometimes tarnishing the Christian religion : […]1839, Alexander Kinmont, “Lecture the Eighth; On the Unity in Variety of the Human Race”, in Twelve Lectures on the Natural History of Man, and the Rise and Progress of Philosophy, Cincinnati: U. P....
Synonyms:

befoul, inquinate, denigrate, blot, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen
(figuratively, intransitive) To lose its lustre or attraction; to become dull.
- Till thy freſh Glories, vvhich novv ſhine ſo bright, / Grovv Stale and Tarniſh vvith our daily ſight.1681, [John Dryden], Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] J[acob] T[onson] and are to be sold by W. Davis […], →OCLC, page 8
Synonyms:

dull, dullen, leaden, pall
To use a sign, image, expression, etc. sufficiently close to a trademarked one that it brings disrepute to it.

tarnish meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

tarnish in Tamil

கறைப்படுத்து, களங்கப்படுத்து, மங்கலாக்கு, நிறம் மங்குதல், மங்கலாகு, மங்கு

tarnish in Bengali

tarnish, rust, verdigris: কলঙ্ক koloṅko

tarnish in Malayalam

അപമാനമുണ്ടാക്കുക, ക്ലാവു പിടിക്കുക, നിഷ്പ്രഭമാക്കുക

More languagesFewer languages

tarnish in Kannada: ಒಪ್ಪಗೆಡಿಸು, ಮಾಸು, ಕಂದು, ಮಾಸಲು ಮಾಡು

Examples of tarnish in a sentence

A good silver polish will remove tarnish easily.
The campaign degenerated into mutual mudslinging, each candidate trying to tarnish the other's reputation and looking bad in the process.
The governor's reputation was tarnished after an anonymous blogger dropped a truth nuke exposing her network of shadowy allies.

All 23 example sentences with tarnish

Synonyms of tarnish

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tarnish

Forms of tarnish

Noun
plural	tarnishes
Verb
third-person singular present	tarnishes
present participle	tarnishing
past participle	tarnished
past	tarnished

Past tense of tarnish: tarnished

Plural of tarnish: tarnishes

Origin of tarnish

From Middle English ternysshen, from Old French terniss-, stem of ternir (“to make dim, make wan”), borrowed from Old High German *ternen, tarnen, from Proto-West Germanic *darnijan (“to conceal”). Doublet of dern and darn.

Words formed from tarnish

Words that rhyme with tarnish

Questions about tarnish

What does tarnish mean?: Tarnish means oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air.
What is tarnish in Tamil?: Tarnish in Tamil is கறைப்படுத்து, களங்கப்படுத்து, மங்கலாக்கு. See Tarnish meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tarnish?: Tarnish can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tarnish?: Tarnish is pronounced /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of tarnish?: The plural of tarnish is tarnishes.

Words near tarnish in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tarnish (page history and authors); tarnish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اڑانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); কলঙ্ক (Bengali) (page history and authors); tarnish (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tarnish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tarnish.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tarnish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tarnish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.