adulterine en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /əˈdʌltəɹaɪn/ (UK)
- ə-dŭlʹtə-rīn (US)
- /əˈdʌltəɹaɪn/ (US)
- ə-dŭlʹtə-rēn (US)
- /əˈdʌltəɹiːn/ (US)
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From Latin adulterīnus.
Meanings
-
Spurious; due to adulteration.
a knave apothecary, that administers the physick, and makes the medicine, may do infinite harm, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine druggs, bad mixtures, quid pro quo, &c.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection i:
- Born of adultery.
- Pertaining to adultery.
-
Illegal; unlicensed.
when any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter , such adulterine guilds , as they were called , were not always disfranchised[…]
1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more adulterine | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most adulterine | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |