adopt
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French adopter, from Latin adoptō; ad + optō (“to choose, desire”), equivalent to ad- + opt.
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /əˈdɑpt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈdɒpt/
audio (US) (file)
VerbEdit
adopt (third-person singular simple present adopts, present participle adopting, simple past and past participle adopted)
- (transitive) To take by choice into relationship (a child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.)
- (transitive) To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.
- A friend of mine recently adopted a Chinese baby girl found on the streets of Beijing.
- (transitive) To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild.
- We're going to adopt a Dalmatian.
- (transitive) To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility.
- This supermarket chain adopts several families every Yuletide, providing them with money and groceries for the holidays.
- 2020 December 30, Paul Stephen, “Chirk station is truly blooming”, in Rail, page 49:
- Sixteen years ago, the station entered into a new chapter when it was adopted by the Friends of Chirk Station (FoCS) volunteer group, under the Arriva Trains Wales Station Adopters programme.
- (transitive) To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.
- (transitive) To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.
- He adopted a new look in order to fit in with his new workmates.
- 2014 November 14, Blake Bailey, “'Tennessee Williams,' by John Lahr [print version: Theatrical victory of art over life, International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 13]”, in The New York Times[1]:
- [S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible.
- (transitive) To select and take or approve.
- to adopt the view or policy of another
- These resolutions were adopted.
- 1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Robert’s Rules of Order, Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co., Article XIV, Section 71, p. 156,[2]
- Every society should adopt an order of business adapted to its special wants.
- (transitive, informal, humorous, chess) to win ten consecutive games against an opponent
Usage notesEdit
In the sense of taking a child into one's family, Modern English makes a distinction between fostering (which is implied to be temporary or informal) and adopting (which is permanent and makes the child legally recognized as part of the family). In older usage the two terms were more interchangeable.
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen
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to take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally
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to select and take or approve
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
RomanianEdit
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
adopt