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  1. adulterine love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Characterized by adulteration; spurious.
  2. adj. Unauthorized by law; illegal.
  3. adj. Born of adultery: adulterine offspring.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of adulterous origin; born of adultery.
  2. Relating or pertaining to adultery; involving or implying adultery: as, adulterine fiction; adulterine marriage (used by St. Augustine of a second marriage after divorce).
  3. Characterized by adulteration; spurious; base: as, adulterine drugs or metals.
  4. Illegitimate; illicit; unauthorized: as, adulterine castles (castles built by the Norman barons in England, after the conquest, without royal warrant).
  5. n. In civil law, a child begotten in adultery.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Spurious; due to adulteration.
  2. adj. Born of adultery.
  3. adj. Pertaining to adultery.
  4. adj. Illegal; unlicensed.
  5. n. rare One born of an adulterous union.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Proceeding from adulterous intercourse. Hence: Spurious; without the support of law; illegal.
  2. n. rare An illegitimate child.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. conceived in adultery

Etymologies

  1. From Latin adulterinus (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin adulterīnus, from adulter, adulterer, perhaps back-formation from adulterāre, to pollute; see adulterate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • chained_bear Ooh... Aug 25, 2008

  • vanishedone Well, I've actually only got those two so far.

    Let's make it an open list, then: http://wordie.org/lists/16088. All contributions gratefully received. Aug 25, 2008

  • chained_bear Ha ha!! If you have a list for those, I'd like to see it. :) Aug 25, 2008

  • vanishedone Slowly but surely I'm building up a vocabulary of dubious-sounding but actually innocuous words with which to confuse innocent ladies who might be invited to don a coverslut and come to tour an adulterine castle.

    Checking a couple of dictionaries suggests this sense is also applied to 'adulterine guilds'. Aug 24, 2008

  • chained_bear An unlicensed castle; castle built without the liege lord's approval. Aug 24, 2008

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‘adulterine’ has been looked up 1493 times, loved by 1 person, added to 10 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.