STAINLESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does stainless mean? 

• STAINLESS (noun)
  The noun STAINLESS has 1 sense:

1. steel containing chromium that makes it resistant to corrosion

  Familiarity information: STAINLESS used as a noun is very rare.

• STAINLESS (adjective)
  The adjective STAINLESS has 1 sense:

1. (of reputation) free from blemishes

  Familiarity information: STAINLESS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STAINLESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Steel containing chromium that makes it resistant to corrosion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

chromium steel; stainless; stainless steel

Hypernyms ("stainless" is a kind of...):

alloy steel (steel who characteristics are determined by the addition of other elements in addition to carbon)

• STAINLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of reputation) free from blemishes

Synonyms:

stainless; unstained; unsullied; untainted; untarnished

Context example:

an untarnished reputation

Similar:

unblemished; unmarred; unmutilated (free from physical or moral spots or stains)

 Context examples 

See! the snow is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A stainless steel needle that is slightly thicker than a human hair.

(Acupuncture needle, NCI Dictionary)

A sorry sight this for the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson too for the stainless two-and-twenty who have ever been taught that the way of nature is the way of sin.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Chromium hexavalent compounds are used in stainless steel production, in chrome plating, in the manufacture of dyes and pigments, in leather tanning, in wood preservation and are used as corrosion inhibitors.

(Chromium Hexavalent Compound, NCI Thesaurus)

Half heaven was pure and stainless: the clouds, now trooping before the wind, which had shifted to the west, were filing off eastward in long, silvered columns.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Nickel compounds are used in industry for electroplating, nickel-alloy production, stainless steel production, in batteries, in electronics, in the ceramic industry and as catalysts.

(Nickel Compound, NCI Thesaurus)

Above, the sky is stainless blue—blue as the sea itself, which under the forefoot is of the colour and sheen of azure satin.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

(New coronavirus stable for hours on surface, National Institutes of Health)

I would not ascribe vice to him; I would not say he had betrayed me; but the attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea, and from his presence I must go: that I perceived well.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

For who could be named with Chandos, the stainless knight, the wise councillor, the valiant warrior, the hero of Crecy, of Winchelsea, of Poictiers, of Auray, and of as many other battles as there were years to his life?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)