Sample Sentences for
tarnish
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

tarnish as in:  tarnished silver

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The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air.
tarnished = caused to lose shine
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    The cleaner removes tarnish on contact.
    tarnish = undesired loss of shine or spotting on a metal surface
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    The following week the knot-hole yielded a tarnished medal.  (source)
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    "One last thing," she said, and she drew out a small oval picture frame of tarnished silver.  (source)
    tarnished = with an undesired loss of shine or spotting
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Show 10 more with 5 word variations
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    Mae Tuck climbed out of bed and began to dress: three petticoats, a rusty brown skirt with one enormous pocket, an old cotton jacket, and a knitted shawl which she pinned across her bosom with a tarnished metal brooch.  (source)
    tarnished = with a loss of shine or with spots
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    Stood in the silver tarnish of a half-moon and glanced up to a sky riddled with stars.†  (source)
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    In its center, between the untarnished copper plates, a word was chiseled deep into the stone: VALARITAS.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in untarnished means not and reverses the meaning of tarnished. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    The azalea scent, so fragrant and delicate in the air, had turned stale inside the wardrobe, tarnishing the silver dresses and the brocade, and the breath of it wafted towards me now from the open doors, faded and old.†  (source)
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    He tarnishes.†  (source)
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    Inside the carton, wrapped in tissue paper, was an old army-issue compass in a brass case, tarnished green-gray with age.  (source)
    tarnished = with an undesired loss of shine and spotting
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    And you were wrong to tarnish his reputation.†  (source)
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    The most interesting thing about it had to be the fact that the wires which held it in place were clean, untarnished, bright and gleaming at their ends, as if they had just recently been cut, unlike their more oxidized brethren everyplace else where the specimen had been wired.†  (source)
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    But if these secret golden keys did seem to open in him his own secret golden treasuries, yet did his breath upon them prove but tarnishing.†  (source)
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    Nothing tarnishes a hero as much as failure.†  (source)
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tarnish as in:  tarnished her reputation

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The scandal tarnished the senator's image.
tarnished = damaged
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    There is a strong program beneath the tarnish of recent neglect.
    tarnish = damage
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    The law school's good name was tarnished by the failure of so many students to pass the Bar Exam.
    tarnished = damaged
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    Elizabeth also wept and was unhappy, but hers also was the misery of innocence, which, like a cloud that passes over the fair moon, for a while hides but cannot tarnish its brightness.  (source)
    tarnish = dim
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Show 8 more with 4 word variations
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    Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic.  (source)
    tarnish = damage
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    My family's name has been tarnished beyond recognition by my son's treatment at the hands of this…this…boy!  (source)
    tarnished = damaged (made to look worse)
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    To begin with, she wouldn't even consider tarnishing her reputation with a string of danna, but might instead have only one or two in her entire life.  (source)
    tarnishing = damaging
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    If the coming slaughter was so much more essential to Caius than an untarnished reputation.  (source)
    untarnished = undamaged
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in untarnished means not and reverses the meaning of tarnished. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    Whatever Aro's goal, I don't think he's ready to tarnish the Volturi's reputation for it.  (source)
    tarnish = damage
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    Of all those who had so foully tarnished the image of the modern South he was a leading mischief-maker ...  (source)
    tarnished = damaged (made to look worse)
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    The BBC producers loved Teabing's hot premise, his research, and his credentials, but they had concerns that the concept was so shocking and hard to swallow that the network might end up tarnishing its reputation for quality journalism.  (source)
    tarnishing = damaging
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    She probably wouldn't want to tarnish her reputation by being seen with us.  (source)
    tarnish = damage
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