Meaning of apocryphal | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Apocryphal, spurious.
2. Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.
3. Of or relating to the Apocrypha.
   not-comparable
4. Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.
   broadly
5. Of dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.
   broadly

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] ‘Tobit and his dog baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw⟳ them into question⟳. I doubt⟳ I hae been mista'en in you, friend.’”

“Besides all this, he had read⟳ his Bible, including the apocryphal books; […]”

“The Latins are throughout poorer. Tertullian and Cyprian will be referred to; but Jerome hates apocryphal literature, and says so, while Augustine, a valuable source of knowledge about some New Testament Apocrypha, never, it so happens, quotes spurious Old Testament literature at all.”

“Many scholars consider⟳ the stories of the monk Teilo to be apocryphal.”

“The structural anthropologist urges us to ignore⟳ the orthodox who labor so patiently trying to eliminate the apocryphal variants from the one true text.”

“There is an apocryphal tale of a little boy plugging the dike with his finger.”

“Charles, already dispos'd by the evidence of his senses to think⟳ my pretences to virginity not entirely apocryphal, smothers me with kisses, begs me, in the name⟳ of love⟳, to have⟳ a little patience, and that he will be as tender of hurting me as he would be of himself.”

Fanny Hill

“I confess I was a little dubious at first whether it was not one of those apocryphal tales often passed off upon inquiring travellers like⟳ myself, and which have⟳ brought our general character for veracity into such unmerited reproach.”

“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 of it with another man’s cheque for close⟳ upon a hundred pounds.”

CEFR level