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A fossil bivalve mollusk of the genus Hippurites, of many species, having a conical, cup-shaped under valve, with a flattish upper valve or lid. Hippurites are found only in the Cretaceous rocks.

quality of being impure in any sense; defilement; foulness; adulteration. Profaneness, impurity, or scandal, is not wit. Buckminster.

Of or pertaining to purpura. Dunglison.

A dyestuff resembling alizarin, found in madder root, and extracted as an orange or red crystalline substance.

Producing, or connected with, a purple-colored secretion; as, the purpuriparous gland of certain gastropods.

To purify again.

Not legitimate; bastard; as, spurious issue. "Her spurious firstborn." Milton. Spurious primary, or Spurious quill (Zoöl.), the first, or outer, primary quill when rudimentary or much reduced in size, as in certain singing birds. -- Spurious wing (Zoöl.), the bastard wing, or alula.

Purification by washing the hands before prayer; -- a Mohammedan rite. Heyse.

Washing away; carrying off impurities; detergent. -- n. (Med.)

inister their tepid, genial airs. Philips. Justice was administered with an exactness and purity not before known. Macaulay.

Debased by the admixture of a foreign substance; adulterated; spurious. -- A*dul"ter*ate*ly, adv. -- A*dul"ter*ate*ness, n.

Proceeding from adulterous intercourse. Hence: Spurious; without the support of law; illegal. When any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter, such were called adulterine guilds. Adam Smith.

Characterized by adulteration; spurious. "An adulterous mixture." [Obs.] Smollett.

To expose to the air for the purpose of cooling, refreshing, or purifying; to ventilate; as, to air a room. It were good wisdom . . . that the jail were aired. Bacon. Were you but riding forth to air yourself. Shak.

The quality, or comparative purity, of gold or silver; fineness.

Not canonical. Hence: Of doubtful authority; equivocal; mythic; fictitious; spurious; false. The passages . . . are, however, in part from apocryphal or fictitious works. Sir G. C. Lewis.

The white color in coats of arms, intended to represent silver, or, figuratively, purity, innocence, beauty, or gentleness; -- represented in engraving by a plain white surface. Weale.

nation, or experiment; to get to know; as, to ascertain the weight of a commodity, or the purity of a metal. He was there only for the purpose of ascertaining whether a descent on England was practicable. Macaulay.

Tested purity or value. [Obs.] With gold and pearl of rich assay. Spenser.

To set aside or reject as spurious, as by marking with an obelus.