adulterantn.adj.
/əˈdʌlt(ə)rənt/, /əˈdʌlt(ə)rn̩t/, U.S. /əˈdəlt(ə)rənt/ A. n.† 1. A person who adulterates (adulterate v. 2b); one who commits or connives in adultery. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1680 R. Baxter Church-hist. Govt. Bishops ix. 242 Theodorus Studita called them a Council of Hereticks and Adulterants, because they restored the Causer of the Emperor's Adultery.
1832 Neuman & Baretti's Dict. Spanish & Eng. Langs. (rev. ed.) at Adúltero Adulterer, adulterant, a person guilty of adultery.
2. A person who or thing which adulterates something (adulterate v. 1a), esp. a substance used to adulterate another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [noun] > admixture or addition as ingredient > adulteration > that which
sophisticationc1400
adulterant1755
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [noun] > admixture or addition as ingredient > that which is added as an ingredient > adulterating
adulterant1755
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. at word Adulterant, the person or thing which adulterates.
1817 Monthly Mag. May 320/2 With regard to the presence of opium in ale, it appears to form a very deleterious adulterant.
1861 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 9 488/2 Mr. John Horsley of Cheltenham has also found copper as an adulterant in the bread and flour of that place.
1881 A. Griffiths Sc. Gossip No. 203. 248 By a careful microscopical examination these adulterants can be easily found out.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxii. 585 Sodium silicate is used..as an adhesive for cardboard boxes, etc., and as an adulterant of soap.
1973 C. A. Wilson Food & Drink in Brit. vii. 262 Even alum was not such a health hazard as some of the substances said to be used as adulterants of bread.
2001 S. Walton Out of It (2002) iv. 83 Street samples of various drugs were laboratory tested to discover their level of purity, and what adulterants they had been cut with.
B. adj.
That adulterates (in various senses); (now) spec. (of a substance) used to adulterate.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [adjective] > that mixes or blends > that adulterates
sophistical1558
adultering1598
sophisticating1611
adulterating1693
adulterant1737
1737 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. (ed. 3) II Adulterant, adulterating.
1803 Anti-Jacobin Rev. & Mag. Dec. 524 To reconcile the audience to an adulterant wife..the whole arts of Kotzebue have been exerted.
1851 Blackburn Standard 11 June These substitutes... are infinitely worse even to think of, than chicory, the professed adulterant agent [of coffee].
1905 National Provisioner 1 Apr. 46/2 The chemist expects to make..a general adulterant oil, a paint oil and other oils, besides soap stock, from petroleum.
2004 E. C. Wilhelmsen in L. M. L. Nollet Handbk. Food Anal. (ed. 2) III. lvi. 2048 These markers allowed detection of as little as 5% of beet medium invert sugar as an adulterant sugar in orange juice.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.adj.1680