All 3 Uses of

taint
in
Oliver Twist

The atmosphere seemed tainted with the smell of coffins.
Chpt 5 *

tainted = contaminated or spoiled

There was an old smoky bust over the mantel-shelf, and a dusty clock above the dock—the only thing present, that seemed to go on as it ought; for depravity, or poverty, or an habitual acquaintance with both, had left a taint on all the animate matter, hardly less unpleasant than the thick greasy scum on every inanimate object that frowned upon it.†
Chpt 43

taint = to spoil something so it is not desirable

Crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud, and threatening to fall into it—as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations; every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage; all these ornament the banks of Folly Ditch.†
Chpt 50

tainted = spoiled or contaminated

Definitions:

(1) (taint)
to spoil something so it is not desirable -- as when bacteria contaminates a food; or as when a rumor makes people distrust a person
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

Much more rarely, taint is used in a non-negative way to refer to a trace of something.