KJV Dictionary Definition: bastard

bastard

B'ASTARD, n. A natural child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or spurious child. By the civil and canon laws, a bastard becomes a legitimate child, by the intermarriage of the parents, at any future time. But by the laws of this country, as by those of England, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage.

Bastard eigne', or bastard elder, in law, is when a man has a bastard son, and afterward marries the mother, and has a legitimate son, called mulier puisne, or younger.

B'ASTARD, n. A kind of sweet wine. Not in use.

B'ASTARD, a. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate.

2. Spurious;; not genuine; false; supposititious; adulterate. In this sense, it is applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not genuine; as a bastard hope, bastard honors.

In military affairs, bastard is applied to pieces of artillery which are of an unusual make or proportion, whether longer or shorter, as the double culverin extraordinary, half or quarter culverin extraordinary.

Bastard-Flower-fence, a plant, a species of Adenanthera.

Bastard-hemp, a plant, a species of Datisca, false hemp.

Bastard-Rocket, dyers-weed, or wild woad, a species of Reseda.

Bastard-Star of Bethlehem, a plant, a species of Albuca.

Bastard-Scarlet, a red color dyed with balemadder.

B'ASTARD, v.t. To make or determine to be a bastard.

bastardism

B'ASTARDISM, n. The state of a bastard.

bastardize

B'ASTARDIZE, v.t. To make or prove to be a bastard; to convict of being a bastard; to declare legally, or decide a person to be illegitimate.

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The law is so indulgent as not to bastardize the child, if born, though not begotten,in lawful wedlock.

2. To beget a bastard.

bastards

B'ASTARDS, an appellation given to a faction or troop of bandits, who ravaged Guienne in France in the 14th century; supposed to have been headed by the illegitimate sons of noblemen, who were excluded from the rights of inheritance.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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