The usage of "tinge"

Question

Is tinged with regret an idiom. Or it is just a normal english phrase. Is there any word best replacing the word tinged in the context of this sentence

Answer 1

“Tinged with regret” is a stock phrase, but not an idiom in the sense of having a meaning at odds with the normal meaning of the words in the phrase.

The primary meaning of “tinge” is “faintly color.” So “white tinged with red” indicates something that is not a pure white but has a very slight red tint within the basically white color, something between pure white and pale pink.

That meaning is extended to emotions. So “tinged with regret” refers to an emotion that essentially is different from regret, but nevertheless includes some feeling of regret.

He was delighted to have been accepted by Princeton, but his delight was tinged with regret that he had been rejected by Harvard.