apocryphal

adj

1. Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.

   “[…] ‘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.”

2. (broadly)Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.

   “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.”

3. (broadly)Of 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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

4. (not-comparable)Of or relating to the Apocrypha.