Apocrypha

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The biblical books included in the Vulgate and accepted in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox canon but considered noncanonical by Protestants because they are not part of the Hebrew Scriptures. See Table at Bible.
2. n. Various early Christian writings proposed as additions to the New Testament but rejected by the major canons.
3. n. Writings or statements of questionable authorship or authenticity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. A writing or statement of doubtful authorship or authenticity: formerly used, in the predicate, as a quasi-adjective.
2. Specifically— Eccles.: A name given in the early church to various writings of uncertain origin and authority, regarded by some as inspired, but rejected by most authorities or believers. Such books were either works acknowledged to be useful and edifying, but not established as canonical, or else heretical writings absolutely rejected by the church.
3. [capitalized] A collection of fourteen books subjoined to the canonical books of the Old Testament in the authorized version of the Bible, as originally issued, but now generally omitted. They do not exist in the Hebrew Bible, but are found with others of the same character scattered through the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of the Old Testament. They are: First and Second Esdras (otherwise Third and Fourth Esdras or Ezra, reckoning Nehemiah as Second Ezra or Esdras), Tobit or Tobias, Judith, the Rest of Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Eeclesiasticus, Baruch (as joined to Jeremiah), parts of Daniel (namely, Song of the Three Children, the History of Susanna, the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon), the Prayer of Manasses, and First and Second Maccabees. Most of these are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as fully canonical, though theologians of that church often distinguish them as deuterocanonical, on the ground that their place in the canon was decided later than that of the other books, limiting the name Apocrypha to the two (last) books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses, and other books not in the above collection, namely, Third and Fourth Maccabees, a book of Enoch, an additional or 151st Psalm of David, and eighteen Psalms of Solomon. With these sometimes are included certain pseudepigraphic books, such as the Apocalypse of Baruch and the Assumption of Moses. The name Apocrypha is also occasionally made to embrace the Antilegomena of the New Testament. The Greek Church makes no distinction among the books contained in the Septuagint. In the Anglican and Lutheran churches, the Apocrypha are read for example of life and instruction of manners, but not for the establishing of any doctrine. See antilegomena and deu-terocanonical.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Something, as a writing, that is of doubtful authorship or authority; -- formerly used also adjectively.
2. n. Specif.: Certain writings which are received by some Christians as an authentic part of the Holy Scriptures, but are rejected by others.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. 14 books of the Old Testament included in the Vulgate (except for II Esdras) but omitted in Jewish and Protestant versions of the Bible; eastern Christian churches (except the Coptic Church) accept all these books as canonical; the Russian Orthodox Church accepts these texts as divinely inspired but does not grant them the same status