(of a child) born as the result of an adulterous relationship.
'An adulterine child born after the termination of the step parent relationship may qualify as a step child.'
'The restriction of adulterine children's inheritance rights is the subject of much criticism.'
Illegal, unlicensed, or spurious.
'Of the adulterine castles characteristic of the anarchy of Stephen's reign, hardly one can be identified with certainty to-day - it may be, indeed, that earthworks commonly thought to be British are relics of these very castles.'
'When he had taken these two adulterine castles and given back to the monastery of St. John the domains that had been seized, he returned to the city of Amiens and laid siege to a tower of that city.'
((n.) An illegitimate child.)
Origin:
Mid 18th century (in the sense ‘due to adulteration’): from Latin adulterinus, from adulterare ‘debauch, corrupt’.
