apocryphal


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Related to apocryphal: Apocryphal gospels

a·poc·ry·phal

 (ə-pŏk′rə-fəl)
adj.
1. Of questionable authorship or authenticity.
2. Erroneous; fictitious: "Wildly apocryphal rumors about starvation in Petrograd ... raced through Russia's trenches" (W. Bruce Lincoln).
3. Apocryphal Bible Of or having to do with the Apocrypha.

a·poc′ry·phal·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

apocryphal

(əˈpɒkrɪfəl)
adj
1. of questionable authenticity
2. (Bible) (sometimes capital) of or like the Apocrypha
3. untrue; counterfeit
aˈpocryphally adv
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•poc•ry•phal

(əˈpɒk rə fəl)

adj.
1. (cap.) of or pertaining to the Apocrypha.
2. of doubtful authorship or authenticity.
3. false; spurious.
[1580–90]
a•poc′ry•phal•ly, adv.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.apocryphal - being of questionable authenticity
questionable - subject to question; "questionable motives"; "a questionable reputation"; "a fire of questionable origin"
2.apocryphal - of or belonging to the ApocryphaApocryphal - of or belonging to the Apocrypha  
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

apocryphal

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations
apokryfinen
apokrifan

apocryphal

[əˈpɒkrɪfəl] ADJapócrifo
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

apocryphal

[əˈpɒkrɪfəl] adj [story] → apocryphe
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

apocryphal

adjapokryph; (= of unknown authorship)anonym; this story, which is almost certainly apocryphaldiese Geschichte, die höchstwahrscheinlich jeder Wahrheit entbehrt
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

apocryphal

[əˈpɒkrɪfəl] adjapocrifo/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
I read among my notes, now, with a new interest, some sentences from an edition of 1621 of the Apocryphal New Testament.
The marriage was to make no change in their place of residence; they had been able to extend it, by taking to themselves the upper rooms formerly belonging to the apocryphal invisible lodger, and they desired nothing more.
Such and so licentious were the times, as announced by the public declaration of the assembled clergy, recorded by Eadmer; and we need add nothing more to vindicate the probability of the scenes which we have detailed, and are about to detail, upon the more apocryphal authority of the Wardour MS.
What apocryphal, ill-devised incidents, attributing to one saint the miracles of another!
I took the liberty of pointing out to my gentleman that the whole business looked apocryphal, and that a man does not, in real life, walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out with another man's cheque for close upon a hundred pounds.
Besides all this, he had read his Bible, including the apocryphal books; Poor Richard's Almanac, Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, The Pilgrim's Progress, with Bunyan's Life and Holy War, a great deal of Bailey's Dictionary, Valentine and Orson, and part of a History of Babylon, which Bartle Massey had lent him.
This life by Planudes contains, however, so small an amount of truth, and is so full of absurd pictures of the grotesque deformity of Aesop, of wondrous apocryphal stories, of lying legends, and gross anachronisms, that it is now universally condemned as false, puerile, and unauthentic.
There certainly did not seem any harm in his frequenting the society of ladies, with a gallantry that appeared to be forced and a pleasure that to their critical eyes was certainly apocryphal. He did not drag his daughters into the mixed society of that period; he did not press upon them the company of those he most frequented, and whose accepted position in that little world of fashion was considered equal to their own.
The matter-of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there were a few among the Maypole customers, as unluckily there always are in every little community, were inclined to look upon this tradition as rather apocryphal; but, whenever the landlord of that ancient hostelry appealed to the mounting block itself as evidence, and triumphantly pointed out that there it stood in the same place to that very day, the doubters never failed to be put down by a large majority, and all true believers exulted as in a victory.
"Sam, I think this rather apocryphal,--this miracle.
There is a fine mediaeval flavor to this story, and as it has not been traced back further than Pere Brateille, a pious but obscure writer at the court of Saint Louis, we shall probably not err on the side of presumption in considering it apocryphal, though Monsignor Capel's judgment of the matter might be different; and to that I bow -- wow.
I must not omit to mention another report, also, which I confess is rather apocryphal, of the buccaneer who is supposed to have been drowned, being seen before daybreak, with a lantern in his hand, seated astride of his great sea chest, and sailing through Hell Gate, which just then began to roar and bellow with redoubled fury.