apocryphal

comparative more apocryphal · superlative most apocryphal

1. ChristianityOf, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.

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

   1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XIX, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC

   2 more 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.’

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XXXVI, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

   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.

   1920, Montague Rhodes James, “Introductory”, in The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament

2. broadlyOf doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.First known use 1590s

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

   1 more example

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

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 11

   Synonyms: allonymous, spurious · Antonyms: canonical

3. broadlyOf dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.

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

   3 more examples

   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

   1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

   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.

   1848, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “London Antiques”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC

   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.

   1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Story of the Door”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 8–9

   Synonyms: anecdotal

1. not comparableChristianityOf or relating to the Apocrypha.