ADULTERATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Adulterate

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ədˈəltərˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Adulterate v. t. (past & past part. adulterated; pres. part. adulterating)

To defile by adultery. (Obs.)

To corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of a foreign or a baser substance; as, to adulterate food, drink, drugs, coin, etc. "The present war has... adulterated our tongue with strange words."

Synonyms: To corrupt; defile; debase; contaminate; vitiate; sophisticate.

Adulterate v. i. To commit adultery. (Obs.)

adjective

Adulterate adj.

Tainted with adultery.

Debased by the admixture of a foreign substance; adulterated; spurious.

See images of 'Adulterate'

Etymology of 'Adulterate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Adulterate" Quotes from Famous Books

... can a man of my turn and temperament have, to live in a place where every corner teems with fresh objects of detestation and disgust? What kind of taste and organs must those people have, who really prefer the adulterate enjoyments of the town to the genuine pleasures of a country retreat? Most people, I know, are originally seduced by vanity, ambition, and childish curiosity; which cannot be gratified, but in the busy haunts of ...

— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... did begin to start and cry; And then against my heart he sets his sword, Swearing, unless I took all patiently, I should not live to speak another word; So should my shame still rest upon record, And never be forgot in mighty Rome Th' adulterate death of ...

— The Rape of Lucrece • William Shakespeare [Clark edition]

... only ignorance, but love, combines to adulterate the tradition. Every man wishes to give his own country an interest in anything great. What an effort has been made to suck Sir T. R. ...

— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... adulterate the beef and the mutton, but he can send home short weight; and in casting up a bill, he can reckon the odd ounces at one penny each, instead of one halfpenny; and the baker, besides putting alum into the bread, to make it white and ...

— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous

... into this country, considering that few know for what other purpose it is used than to adulterate beer. We suspect what was at one time generally sold to brewers for Cocculus Indicus was really Nux Vomica (used to poison rats), and that the brewers' druggists when making their defence, passed Nux Vomica for Cocculus Indicus, on the same principle as the forgers of bank notes ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 390, September 19, 1829 • Various

More quotes...