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adopt

Dictionary

a·dopt (ə?-dŏopt')
tr.v., a·dopt·ed, a·dopt·ing, a·dopts.

To take into one's family through legal means and raise as one's own child.

To take and follow (a course of action, for example) by choice or assent: adopt a new technique.
To take up and make one's own: adopt a new idea.

To take on or assume: adopted an air of importance.
To vote to accept: adopt a resolution.
To choose as standard or required in a course: adopt a new line of English textbooks.

[Middle English adopten, from Old French adopter, from Latin adoptāare : ad-, ad- + optāare, to choose.]

a·dopt'a·bil'i·ty n.
a·dopt'a·ble adj.
a·dopt'er n.
a·dop'tion n.

USAGE NOTE Children are adopted by parents, and one normally refers to an adopted child but to adoptive parents, families, and homes. When describing places, one can use either adopted or adoptive: She enjoys living in her adopted country. Detroit is their adoptive city.

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Thesaurus

adopt

verb

To take, as another's idea, and make one's own: embrace, espouse, take on, take up. See accept/reject, give/take/reciprocity.
To accept officially: affirm, approve, confirm, pass, ratify, sanction. See accept/reject, law.

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Directory > General Reference > Thesaurus > adopt

Legal Dictionary

adopt (ə?-`däpt)
vt.

To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) as one's own child esp. in compliance with formal legal procedures see also equitable adoption
To take or accept as if one's own ([the company] adopted the signature on the financing statement - Barber-Greene Co. v. Nat'l City Bank of Minneapolis, 816 F.2d 1267 (1987))
To accept formally and put into effect (adopt a constitutional amendment) adopt·able (ə?-`däp-tə?-bə?l)
adj.
adopt·abil·i·ty (ə?-'däp-tə?-`bi-lə?-tēe)
adv.
adop·tion (ə?-`däp-shə?n)
n.