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Glite Dictionary
🟤 Spotted or stained 🟤 To stain 🕳️ Morally stained 🕳️ To tarnish
to maculate

to maculate

9.9
To mark with spots or stains
  • verb
  • /ˈmæk.jə.leɪt/
  • Literature
translation icon : macular
  • Don't maculate your reputation with false accusations!

Examples

  • He feared that a single mistake could maculate his honor forever.

  • The painters accidentally maculated the canvas with drops of blue paint.

  • Centuries of pollution had maculated the once pristine lake.

  • The painting was maculated with dark spots over time.

  • The artist refused to maculate his canvas, preferring to keep it untouched and pure.

  • The chemicals in the water can maculate the local environment, harming wildlife and plants.

  • He was careful not to maculate the clean floors as he carried the paint can inside.

Synonyms

to stain
vsto maculate
113 3.2

To put color on something to change how it looks

is more about dirtying or polluting rather than only coloring
to soil
vsto maculate
59 4.5

To make something dirty with mud or dirt

is more general and also covers symbolic or broader pollution
to defile
vsto maculate
38 8.6

To make something dirty or harm its reputation

is focused on marking with spots or staining rather than moral harm
to foul
vsto maculate
18 4.5

To make something dirty or blocked so it does not work properly

adds a sense of blocking or obstruction beyond simple spotting
to befoul
vsto maculate
3 9.4

Make something dirty or spoiled by adding harmful things

is slightly narrower and adds the idea of visible spots or stains
to begrime
vsto maculate
1 9.4

To cover something with dark dirt so it becomes dirty

is more general and includes light stains and figurative pollution
to colly
vsto maculate
  • Archaic
9.9

To make something dirty or stained

is broader and also means to pollute or spoil beyond physical stains
to smut
vsto maculate
  • Archaic
7.9

To stain something with black dirt or soot

is broader and can mean marking with spots beyond soot stains
to smutch
vsto maculate
  • Archaic
9.9

To make a dirty mark or smudge on something

is broader applying to stains pollution or defilement as well

Antonyms

to purify
30 4.6

To remove dirt and bad chemicals from water or air to make them clean

How Stained

to maculate
  • Literature
9.9
to blotch
2 5.3
to splotch
2 6.7
to speckle
15 3.9
to spot
46 2.2

Surface Forms

maculate infinitive
maculated past
maculated past participle
maculating present participle
maculates third person singular

Morphology

maculate = macula (opaque) = macul + ate

The verb formation uses a learned Latinate pattern (-ate) and the combining form 'macul-', which are not obvious to average learners.

Etymology

Maculate as a verb comes from the Latin macula 'spot', so to maculate something is to put a spot or stain on it, like dropping ink on paper. This is why the verb means to mark, soil, or pollute.