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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.

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.

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.

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

Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so. That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices. Barrow.

In the manner of a bastard; spuriously. [Obs.] Shak. Donne.

sheartened or dejected. -- True blue, genuine and thorough; not modified, nor mixed; not spurious; specifically, of uncompromising Presbyterianism, blue being the color adopted by the Covenanters.

Spurious; fictitious; sham; -- a cant term originally applied to counterfeit coin, and hence denoting anything counterfeit. [Colloq. U. S.]

Of or pertaining to Clement, esp. to St.Clement of Rome and the spurious homilies attributed to him, or to Pope Clement V. and his compilations of canon law.

Assuming the appearance of something; false; spurious; deceitful; hypocritical; as, a counterfeit philanthropist. "An arrant counterfeit rascal." Shak.

esenting a crown; as, the paper is stamped with a crown. Crown of aberration (Astron.), a spurious circle around the true circle of the sun. -- Crown antler (Zoöl.), the topmost branch or tine of an antler; also, an antler having a cuplike top, with tines springing from the rim. -- Crown bar, one of the bars which su…

t surreptitiously, wrongfully, or without warrant; to interpolate; to pass off (something spurious or counterfeit) as genuine, true, or worthy; -- usually followed by in. Lest negligence or partiality might admit or fois in abuses corruption. R. Carew. When a scripture has been corrupted . . . by a supposititious foist…

Belonging to, or proceeding from, the original stock; native; hence, not counterfeit, spurious, false, or adulterated; authentic; real; natural; true; pure; as, a genuine text; a genuine production; genuine materials. "True, genuine night." Dryden.

Not authorized by good usage; not genuine; spurious; as, an illegitimate word. Illegitimate fertilization, or Illegitimate union (Bot.), the fertilization of pistils by stamens not of their own length, in heterogonously dimorphic and trimorphic flowers. Darwin.

in, or added to, the original; introduced; foisted in; changed by the insertion of new or spurious matter.

The act of introducing or inserting anything, especially that which is spurious or foreign.

One who interpolates; esp., one who inserts foreign or spurious matter in genuine writings.

Surreptitious; spurious. [Obs.] Dr. Castell (1673).