Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STAIN, n.

1. A spot; discoloration from foreign matter; as, stain on a garment or cloth.
2. A natural spot of a color different from the ground. Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains. – Pope.
3. Taint of guilt; tarnish; disgrace; reproach; as, the stain of sin. Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains. – Dryden. Our opinion is, I hope, without any blemish or stain of heresy. – Hooker.
4. Cause of reproach; shame. Hereby I will lead her that is the praise and yet the stain all womankind. – Sidney.