adulterate

/əˌdʌltəˈreɪt/

Other forms: adulterated; adulterating; adulterates

If you adulterate something, you mess it up. You may not want to adulterate the beauty of freshly fallen snow by shoveling it, but how else are you going to get to work?

The verb adulterate comes from the Latin word adulterare, which means “to falsify,” or “to corrupt.” Whenever something original, pure, fresh, or wholesome is marred, polluted, defaced, or otherwise made inferior, it has been adulterated. A vitamin company might issue a recall if they learn that one of their products was adulterated during production. And if you hate dried fruit, you might complain that your grandma adulterates her oatmeal cookies with raisins.

Definitions of adulterate

1. verb

   corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones
   synonyms: debase, dilute, load, stretch

   extend, stretch

   increase in quantity or bulk by adding a cheaper substance

   types:

   water down

   thin by adding water to

   doctor, doctor up, sophisticate

   alter and make impure, as with the intention to deceive

   type of:

   corrupt, spoil

   alter from the original
2. adjective

   mixed with impurities
   synonyms: adulterated, debased

   impure

   combined with extraneous elements