Note: In the common law, the term is applied to a person who has attained full age or legal majority; in the civil law, to males after the age of fourteen, and to females after twelve.
ADULTER
A*dul"ter, v. i. Etym: [L. adulterare.]
Defn: To commit adultery; to pollute. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
ADULTERANT
A*dul"ter*ant, n. Etym: [L. adulterans, p. pr. of adulterare.]
Defn: That which is used to adulterate anything.
— a. Adulterating; as, adulterant agents and processes.
ADULTERATE A*dul"ter*ate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Adulterated; p. pr. & vb. n Adulterating.] Etym: [L. adulteratus, p. p. of adulterare, fr. adulter adulterer, prob. fr. ad + alter other, properly one who approaches another on account of unlawful love. Cf. Advoutry.]
1. To defile by adultery. [Obs.] Milton.
2. 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. Spectator.
Syn.
— To corrupt; defile; debase; contaminate; vitiate; sophisticate.
ADULTERATE
A*dul"ter*ate, v. i.