Hypertext Webster Gateway: "adultery"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Adultery
conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit
intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a
woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and
an unmarried woman was fornication. Adultery was regarded as a
great social wrong, as well as a great sin.
The Mosaic law (Num. 5:11-31) prescribed that the suspected
wife should be tried by the ordeal of the "water of jealousy."
There is, however, no recorded instance of the application of
this law. In subsequent times the Rabbis made various
regulations with the view of discovering the guilty party, and
of bringing about a divorce. It has been inferred from John
8:1-11 that this sin became very common during the age preceding
the destruction of Jerusalem.
Idolatry, covetousness, and apostasy are spoken of as adultery
spiritually (Jer. 3:6, 8, 9; Ezek. 16:32; Hos. 1:2:3; Rev.
2:22). An apostate church is an adulteress (Isa. 1:21; Ezek.
23:4, 7, 37), and the Jews are styled "an adulterous generation"
(Matt. 12:39). (Comp. Rev. 12.)
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Adultery \A*dul"ter*y\, n.; pl. {Adulteries}. [L. adulterium.
See {Advoutry}.]
1. The unfaithfulness of a married person to the marriage
bed; sexual intercourse by a married man with another than
his wife, or voluntary sexual intercourse by a married
woman with another than her husband.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
adultery
n : extramarital sex that willfully and maliciously interferes
with marriage relations; "adultery is often cited as
grounds for divorce" [syn: {criminal conversation}, {fornication}]
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