Definition of "attainder"

attainder

noun
plural attainders
1. (law, rare) The state a prisoner enters once a death sentence (usually for treason) had been issued; the state of being stripped of all civil rights.
  Quotations
  Grandpa Piper led thereto by the arm […] and himself thrust into a chair, to support the character of dummy to Henry's prearranged attainder.
  1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, page 139
2. (archaic) A stain; a state of dishonour or condemnation.
  Quotations
  He lived from all attainder of suspects.
  c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene v], line 32
  Some of the horses were registered under phony papers, their sires having been ruled off the track as doped or doctored. The hereditary attainder rule was very strict.
  1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, page 230