adulterate

Adjective

adulterate (comparative more adulterate, superlative most adulterate)

1. (archaic, literary) Corrupted or made impure by being mixed with something else; adulterated.
   • Theſe, and other like places in abundance through all thoſe ſhort Epiſtles, muſt either be adulterat, or elſe Ignatius [of Antioch] was not Ignatius, nor a Martyr, but moſt adulterate, and corrupt himſelf.1641 June or July, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, and Whether It may be Deduc’d from the Apostolical Times by Virtue of Those Testimonies which are Alledg’d to that Purpose in Some Late...
2. (archaic, literary) Tending to commit adultery; relating to or being the product of adultery; adulterous.
   • I am poſſeſt with an adulterate blot, / My bloud is mingled with the crime of luſt: [...]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   • I [i.e., ay] that inceſtuous, that adulterate beaſt, / With witchcraft of his wits, with trayterous gifts, / O wicked wit, and giftes that haue the power / So to ſeduce; wonne to his ſhamefull luſt / The will of my moſt ſeeming vertuous Queene; [...]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...

Verb

UK/əˈdʌltəɹeɪt/US/əˈdʌltəˌɹeɪt/

adulterate (third-person singular simple present adulterates, present participle adulterating, simple past and past participle adulterated)

1. (archaic, literary, transitive) To corrupt, to debase (someone or something).
   • For thus, that King violated that Oath which he ought moſt religiouſly to have ſworn to; but that he might not ſeem openly and publickly to violate it, he craftily adulterated and corrupted it; and leaſt he himſelf ſhould be accounted perjur'd, he turn'd the very Oath into a Perjury. [...] And who...1692, John Milton, chapter XII, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 237

   Synonyms:

   lead astray, sophisticate, warp, corrupt, debauch, demoralize, detort, file, immoralize, pervert

2. (archaic, literary, transitive) To make less valuable or spoil (something) by adding impurities or other substances.
   • to adulterate coins, drugs, food and drink, etc.
   • The present war has so adulterated our tongue with strange words, that it would be impossible for one of our great grandfathers to know what his posterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern newspaper.1711 September 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, September 8, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 165; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […]...

   Synonyms:

   adulter, debase, sophisticate

3. (archaic, literary, transitive) To commit adultery with (someone).

   Synonyms:

   adulter

4. (archaic, literary, transitive) To defile (someone) by adultery.
   • Yet ſome would perſwade us, that this abſurd opinion was King Davids; becauſe in the 51st Pſalm he cries out to God, Againſt thee onely have I ſinn'd; as if David had imagin'd that to murder Uriah and adulterate his Wife, had bin no ſinn againſt his Neighbour, when as that Law of Moſes was to the...1649, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], published 1649 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 13
5. (also, archaic, figuratively, intransitive, literary) To commit adultery.
   • But Fortune, oh, / She is corrupted, chang’d, and wonne from thee, / Sh’adulterates hourely with thine Vnckle Iohn, / And with her golden hand hath pluckt on France / To tread downe faire reſpect of Soueraigntie, / And made his Maieſtie the bawd to theirs.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...