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adopt
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
adopt
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
accept/adopt a suggestion (=do what is suggested)
▪ The issue was finally settled when Amelia’s suggestion was adopted.
adopt a method (=start using a new method)
▪ Quite a few companies adopted Japanese business methods.
adopt a policy (=use one)
▪ He adopted a policy of radical reform.
adopt a position (=start having an opinion)
▪ In 1898, the Church adopted its current position.
adopt a resolution (=pass it)
▪ The resolution was adopted by 12 votes to none.
adopt a strategy (=start to use it)
▪ Both players adopted the same strategy.
adopt a system (=decide to use it)
▪ They decided to adopt the electoral system used in Britain.
adopt a...approach
▪ He decided to adopt a different approach and teach the Bible through story-telling.
adopt a...posture
▪ He tends to adopt a defensive posture towards new ideas.
adopt/approve a constitution (=agree one and start to use it)
▪ In 1984, the South African government adopted a new constitution.
adopt/assume an identity (=give yourself a new identity )
▪ She assumed a false identity and went to live in South America.
adopt/introduce a measure (=start using a particular way of dealing with a problem)
▪ The countries agreed to adopt measures to reduce pollution.
an adopted child (=legally made part of a family that he or she was not born into)
▪ I didn’t find out that I was an adopted child until years later.
approve/adopt a recommendation
▪ The council approved the committee’s recommendation.
assume/adopt a position formal (= move your body into a particular position)
▪ The patient should adopt this position for five minutes every half hour.
employ/adopt a tacticformal (= use a tactic)
▪ Many species of fish employ similar defence tactics.
have/take/adopt an attitude
▪ Not everyone takes a positive attitude towards modern art.
take/adopt a hard line (on sth)
▪ The school takes a very hard line on drugs.
take/adopt a stance
▪ The President has adopted a tough stance on terrorism.
take/adopt an approach (=use an approach)
▪ There were concerns that Beijing would take a tougher approach.
your adopted country (=that you have chosen to live in permanently)
▪ I felt proud of my adopted country, America.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
approach
▪ A multi-disciplinary research approach will be adopted.
▪ Whether a capitalist or socialist approach to development is adopted, it must be development with a human face.
▪ A variety of approaches should be adopted to build a profile of nurses resident locally.
▪ Whatever blend of approaches you adopt, remember to stick to the ten new management principles.
▪ The step-by-step approach was adopted and the high degree of success achieved can be largely attributed to this strategy.
▪ Yet the concept of computability remains the same, whichever of these various approaches is adopted.
▪ This has provided the statistics that are needed for a new approach to be adopted for setting reserves and premium rates.
▪ As the often misogynistic views of philosophers were exposed, two lines of approach were adopted.
attitude
▪ I am disappointed the policy review has adopted such a negative attitude both to a Bill of Rights and electoral reform.
▪ Encourage employees to adopt a problem-solving attitude when discussing sensitive issues.
▪ We are no longer in the least likely to adopt such a Plato-like attitude towards the needs of industry or the economy.
▪ The usual procedure is to adopt a more flexible attitude.
▪ That is what we seek to do, rather than adopting a defeatist attitude to the delivery of health care.
▪ A society that widely adopts this attitude is in trouble.
▪ It may be asked what there is to stop people adopting inconsistent attitudes.
▪ Nearly 75 percent of all adults believe that depressed people can recover on their own by just adopting a positive attitude.
child
▪ Lambeth Council is trying to encourage more homosexual men and women to adopt children or become foster parents.
▪ Why draw a distinction between the adopted and the biological child?
▪ If even she has difficulty, the chances of me adopting a child are negligible, I suppose.
▪ The Clintons have neither conceived nor adopted a child since the birth of Chelsea 16 years ago.
▪ In 1988 the foster parents gave notice of their application to adopt the child.
▪ Working with black ministers, it asked each black church to find at least one family willing to adopt a child.
▪ And the remarkable thing is, on hearing of it, he decided to adopt the child.
▪ For fear of some social stigma or psychological scarring, adopted children were routinely lied to about their beginnings.
company
▪ Frequently, companies adopt standard forms of Articles of Association which are prescribed under the Companies Act 1985.
▪ His company might adopt a gain-sharing plan based upon plant-wide performance.
▪ Procedure within the financial accounts Many larger companies adopt the procedure of raising a debit note for any errors on invoices.
▪ Governing bodies in Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley approved resolutions urging the company to adopt ecologically sound procurement policies.
▪ Nevertheless, I find that many companies that have adopted piecemeal changes are already tiring of the subject.
▪ Quite clearly the conception of the company explicitly adopted by the legal model is the contractual one.
council
▪ These are initiated by the Commission and adopted by the Council of Ministers.
▪ The ordinance adopted by the City Council Tuesday night will take effect in 30 days.
▪ The draft directive is likely to be adopted by Council in the autumn and would not come into force before 1993.
▪ Although the Commission drew up proposals, adopted by the Council in June 1980, no conferences have been held since.
▪ The Friel report was drawn up earlier this year and was unanimously adopted by the council last week.
▪ It may be that the programmes will eventually be adopted at the Research Council in June but this is far from certain.
form
▪ Between the curving cross-spars, the sail adopts a vee form not unlike that on a Malay or triangular kite.
▪ If there were agreement on this question, we might reasonably expect most states to have adopted the same form of government.
▪ Frequently, companies adopt standard forms of Articles of Association which are prescribed under the Companies Act 1985.
▪ Gradually the communities adopted a standardized form of budget, which was carefully scrutinized by the intendant.
▪ They attempt to adopt adult word forms and use them with increasing consistency from one occasion to the next.
▪ Later, when Invercargill was extended it adopted a classical form.
▪ As we shall see, the Museum of Modern Art is not alone in adopting this form of display.
▪ Already, Argos, Syracuse and other cities had adopted the Kleisthenic form of democracy.
government
▪ The threat of violence and real fear of revolution prompted the Government to adopt limited constitutional changes.
▪ Crawford is one of the founders of the International Dark-Sky Association, which lobbies governments to adopt pollution standards.
▪ We will ensure that all parts of government adopt a strategic approach to the employment and development of women staff.
▪ But Schro der's leftwing government adopted a less rigid stance on foreign currency.
▪ In the meantime, the Government should adopt a far more dynamic approach to fiscal policy.
▪ To deal with such problems, governments can choose to adopt a specific sectoral policy.
▪ Belatedly, the government adopts the remedy.
▪ He gave an undertaking that his government would not adopt aggressive measures in future.
idea
▪ The Labour Party has adopted these ideas.
▪ Former rival Steve Forbes has urged Dole to adopt the flat tax idea that was central to Forbes' presidential campaign.
▪ By the early nineties a significant proportion of young radicals had adopted Marxist ideas.
▪ Few educators outside the school showed any enthusiasm for adopting Reddie's pioneering ideas.
▪ Feldt also is very quick to adopt new, effective ideas, Papp said.
▪ It can not be said that Storni was quick to adopt fresh ideas.
law
▪ By not adopting the law on financing the Yugoslav bank for economic co-operation, 350,000 million dinars were saved.
▪ Both countries already have adopted laws that allow their nationals to sue the United States if affected by Helms-Burton.
▪ More and more states were adopting laws which banned the sale of alcohol.
▪ The sentiments sung by the young were adopted into law.
▪ Here Durkheim took a leaf out of Maine's book and decided to adopt law as an objective measure of social solidarity.
▪ Its state legislators refused to adopt public accommodations laws for their counties.
▪ In 1997 it adopted a law that made it possible for children of any age tobe tried as adults.
line
▪ Skipp adopted the same line as Morris.
▪ You can adopt two lines of approach when you start a new business.
▪ One faction of the National Front appeared to be adopting a pro-Zionist line.
▪ Consultation with the religious denominations was promised before new laws were adopted along the lines of the legislation of 1928.
measure
▪ The board adopted its own measure, which will go on the March ballot in opposition to the Kuper initiative.
▪ The restrictions were initially adopted as a temporary measure designed to slow down the flight of foreign currency reserves from the country.
▪ The board hopes the Federal Aviation Administration will urge the airlines to adopt such measures.
▪ Since the King's Cross fire of 1987, London Underground has been forced to adopt certain stringent safety measures.
▪ It will address their further development, and if appropriate, adopt new measures to meet new challenges. 3.
▪ Nevertheless, some LEAs are adopting tough measures.
method
▪ The Society was substantially unsuccessful in its aim of persuading other charities to adopt the same methods.
▪ Having to adopt the fast-track method made life difficult for all three.
▪ After all, one does not have to adopt a Marxist method in order to make statements about poverty, injustice or exploitation.
▪ Only two judges have been turned out of office since Wyoming adopted this method of judicial selection nearly twenty years ago.
▪ There had been no pressure brought by the employers to adopt that method of working.
▪ Small companies are also beginning to see the benefits of adopting the same methods.
▪ My decision to adopt this method is not an arbitrary one.
▪ Without the advantage of mobile clearinghouse personnel, the majority of clearinghouses have no option but to adopt this method.
model
▪ They believe they have adopted a model that offers hope to all the poor of El Salvador.
▪ Mr Baker adopted the Henry V model for his official morale-boosting speech from the conference platform.
▪ In fact, Holder concludes that governments should adopt the basic business model of financial reporting.
▪ The Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change also tends to implicitly adopt this model.
▪ Quite clearly the conception of the company explicitly adopted by the legal model is the contractual one.
▪ Indeed, Tivoli says it may even adopt the Object Model as a subset of its own future offerings.
▪ There is no pressure to adopt the business model of reporting.
name
▪ She adopted the name Hertha, perhaps to indicate her changed circumstances.
▪ The Norse people probably called the island Rumsay, adopting an older Celtic name of Ruiminn.
▪ Born Alice Nilsson, Babs adopted her stage name as a teenage star in radio, records and film.
▪ This had already been widely adopted as the name of a higher school.
▪ If the line were deleted then subsequent roles would all adopt the wrong names.
▪ He's converted to their religion and has adopted the name, Spotted Eagle.
party
▪ Instead the 1980s has seen neoliberal market philosophies being adopted even by parties of the Left.
▪ The report was adopted at a party convention in March.
▪ The steps in the negotiating process vary depending on the tactics adopted by the two parties.
▪ They can dilute their class appeal and become simply another party of government, the course generally adopted by social democratic parties.
▪ From the beginning Nizan was quite clearly convinced of the necessity to adopt a strictly orthodox party line.
plan
▪ We will encourage all TECs to adopt plans to help women trainees have equal access to training opportunities.
▪ His company might adopt a gain-sharing plan based upon plant-wide performance.
▪ Between moves 9 and 13, he adopted a convoluted plan that seemed only to tangle his own pieces.
▪ Westinghouse last week adopted a poisonpill plan to make any takeover attempt tougher.
▪ The meeting did not resolve all these issues, but did adopt the Buenos Aires Plan of Action.
▪ In 1944, the industrialists adopted the Bombay Plan.
▪ It's simply the way that I've adopted since the plans I laid were destroyed.
▪ Three months later, the District Court adopted a plan requiring $ 187, 450, 334 in further capital improvements.
policy
▪ On practically every issue the Comintern found itself in the role of an infallible body which had adopted a manifestly fallible policy.
▪ Ultimately, planners adopted a policy of non-violence.
▪ He thought that protection from inflation should be sought by adopting an appropriate investment policy.
▪ Nevertheless, the two services eventually adopted a compromise policy.
▪ Thus another, better system must be adopted and translated into policy by planners and administrators.
▪ He also agreed to adopt policies on affirmative action and ethics.
▪ Parties adopt or disavow policies not only to win forthcoming elections but also as a response to past electoral outcomes.
▪ Many of the proposals outlined there appear extreme and have not been adopted as policy.
position
▪ The newly founded Military Miscellany acquired a readership of 6,000 in a few months by adopting an openly reformist position vis-à-vis the army.
▪ Already, some prominent Republicans are adopting this moderate position.
▪ No one is more disciplined in adopting a defensible position.
▪ The pope had not helped matters by adopting a position which only a minority of theologians found plausible.
▪ Warton again adopts a progressive position.
▪ Left-wing incumbents are expected to adopt high-inflation, low-unemployment positions and right-wing governments the reverse.
▪ The real menace is the right shoulder, which at the top of the backswing adopts a potentially powerful position.
▪ The taller stances, in which the practitioner adopts an almost upright position, are fast but weak.
posture
▪ The bird adopts a characteristic squatting posture with its wings thrust forward to allow the ants access to the important feather tracts.
▪ Weld has adopted an unusually low-key posture at this meeting in contrast to the high-profile figure he has cut in the past.
▪ It was this factor more than any other which caused officials and Ministers alike to adopt such defensive postures.
▪ Try to adopt this new posture whenever possible throughout the day.
▪ Do most members want the Institute to adopt politically controversial postures?
▪ The squeeze on consumption prior to 1969 now led to trade unions adopting a more militant posture in wage negotiations.
practice
▪ Encouraging the profession to adopt practice management standards invites the same question about the Society itself.
▪ Even some skeptical out-of-towners adopt the practice.
▪ The ground squirrel is another mammal that has adopted the practice of throwing things - primarily at its main predators, snakes.
▪ After the 1982 recession virtually bankrupted them, many states adopted the practice.
▪ Trade Unions Encourage and support employers to adopt good practice in risk assessment and management.
▪ If you adopt this practice, by sure to take less club than usual.
▪ It has always been the policy of the Government for nationalized industries to adopt best commercial practice at least.
principle
▪ Whatever method you adopt, the following principles are equally valid and need to be taken into account. 1.
▪ Small independent merchants who were threatened by both the supermarkets and the chains were forced to adopt the supermarket principle.
▪ It is difficult at first encounter to appreciate how great a step has been taken in adopting this principle.
▪ My country has adopted individual rights in principle, but as far as it goes, it means men, not women.
▪ I propose we deliberately adopt these principles of action to counter the changes we have witnessed.
▪ They hope the authorities will adopt the principle in all public entertainment licences with effect from 1993.
▪ You may adopt the principle of statement and reasons, facts or evidence to your style and purpose.
procedure
▪ Procedure within the financial accounts Many larger companies adopt the procedure of raising a debit note for any errors on invoices.
▪ Its board has adopted a streamlined procedure for doling out emergency loans.
▪ Most LEAs are adopting systematic procedures of school inspections and viewing what goes on in classrooms.
▪ Otherwise adopt the standard procedure given in Air Pilot, and any special procedure that may be required at certain major airports.
▪ However, it is clearly sensible for a business to adopt standard contract formation procedures.
▪ Mr Slough said trade officials were slow to adopt new export procedures which came into force in January.
proposal
▪ We certainly hope that both schools and teachers will adopt the proposals in the report.
▪ The House adopted the proposal last year but it lost by one vote in the Senate.
▪ If all goes well, major league teams will adopt a proposal for interleague play in 1997.
resolution
▪ That convention needed a consensus, while the London Dumping Convention adopts its resolutions by a two-thirds majority.
▪ Congress, accordingly, adopted a resolution favoring the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms.
▪ Prior to Gorbachev's re-election, the congress had adopted a resolution approving his report of July 2.
▪ A year later the National Labour Women's Conference adopted a similar resolution.
role
▪ They are not adopting the broader role that we envisaged.
▪ He resolved the problem by adopting the role of lookout, warning the men when strangers, particularly police, were approaching.
▪ And more than this, the law should adopt the role of community educator.
▪ What residential provision exists will have to adopt a specialist role within the gamut of available services.
▪ Sandison adopted the McPherson role of organising matters behind the Airdrie defensive line while the midfield remained conservatively deep.
▪ Developers were obliged to adopt a highly active role in locating land.
▪ It can be argued, for example, that teaching can be accomplished more effectively if teacher and student adopt their appropriate roles.
▪ The female adopts a more passive role in conception than the male, and physiologically she has less to do.
rule
▪ The authorities should adopt a rule for the rate of growth of the money supply and should stick by it.
▪ It is up to local school authorities to adopt rules controlling the use of such leaves.
▪ Accounts were adopted without question, rule changes without demur.
▪ Yet adopting uniform rules should not be the ultimate goal.
▪ Assembly conservatives adopted rules giving them power over all committees and legislation.
▪ Bomer said he plans to adopt a new rule this summer that would erase any confusion on rounding by outlawing double rounding.
stance
▪ He was both eager to adopt the right stance and unnerved by the strangeness of it.
▪ A federal trial judge in New York adopted that stance in this case.
▪ Clinton consistently supported women's right to abortion at a time when Bush adopted an anti-abortion stance.
▪ Both poets adopt a stance of resignation in struggles with their employers.
▪ But Schro der's leftwing government adopted a less rigid stance on foreign currency.
▪ Until quite recently the socio-cultural anthropologists have adopted a very similar stance.
▪ The secret of playing these shots is to adopt the stance you are comfortable with.
▪ Now place yourself inside the regulationist framework, that is, adopt the stance of a regulationist in relation to the other two theories.
standard
▪ Once we have adequate instrumentation and have adopted an internal standard, what do we find?
▪ Crawford is one of the founders of the International Dark-Sky Association, which lobbies governments to adopt pollution standards.
▪ Encouraging the profession to adopt practice management standards invites the same question about the Society itself.
▪ Feminist psychologists often adopt an implicitly biological standard of heterosexual normality.
▪ On the other hand, the ward staff should adopt a uniform standard and method throughout the hospital.
▪ If adopted, the standard would apply to financial years beginning on or after 16 December 1993.
▪ The distance was subsequently adopted as the marathon standard and the Poly Marathon was born.
▪ Field men again adopt very different standards of tolerance, depending on the nature of their patch.
state
▪ Teachers in state schools must adopt some of these selling techniques if history is to flourish in the state sector.
▪ If there were agreement on this question, we might reasonably expect most states to have adopted the same form of government.
▪ More and more states were adopting laws which banned the sale of alcohol.
▪ Some 27 states have adopted versions of the new Daubert standard, including Massachusetts.
▪ The same will apply in any state where sharia is adopted.
▪ For this reason a number of states have adopted no-fault systems for settling personal injury claims arising from auto accidents.
▪ Article 8 provides that member states may adopt more stringent provisions than those set out in the Directive if they so wish.
▪ In 1991 the state adopted an update of the Uniform Plumbing Code to prevent such a disaster from happening.
strategy
▪ Companies which utilize an aggressive sales policy, based on personal selling, are said to be adopting a push strategy.
▪ Thus far, Dole has shown no signs of adopting such a strategy.
▪ By comparison firms which rely more heavily on advertising are described as adopting a pull strategy. 23.
▪ The dental museum has adopted a different strategy.
▪ Several kinds of insects adopt a similar strategy.
▪ The parliamentary debate on the Report showed the Home Secretary adopting a two-pronged strategy in his response.
▪ Feminist psychologists tend not to deal with these other discourses, except by adopting numerical strategies.
▪ In the few years that followed, Eliot adopted various strategies to keep his poetry flowing.
style
▪ If adopting the tiger style, for instance, the hands would be shaped like claws.
▪ It is often the physician, as the person responsible for the activities required for patient care, who adopts this style.
▪ Now the tags automatically adopt the defined styles.
▪ Guest, adopting the faux documentary style, was only partially successful.
▪ From the 1500s, instruments started to adopt a more familiar style.
▪ I adopted this style of flying.
▪ The rationalization of modern life, suggest those who adopt the functionalist style, must be directly confronted.
▪ There may on occasions be sound educational reasons for adopting a style of interaction in which unfocused questions predominate.
system
▪ But it has been further seen that strong justification is needed for adopting a system at variance with prevailing medical views.
▪ No one is suggesting that we adopt these systems in total.
▪ Firstly, it has decided to adopt a system of home country supervision.
▪ For this reason a number of states have adopted no-fault systems for settling personal injury claims arising from auto accidents.
▪ If they adopted that system which costs nothing you would avoid patients' frustration and give the health service a better name.
▪ Indeed, the surprise is that more mammals and birds do not adopt this system.
▪ That we adopt a system of Primary and Secondary Visits which would operate over a two year period.
▪ In both cases therefore a system of representative democracy is adopted.
technique
▪ In the face of such opposition, those managements with the wit to explore alternative strategies have adopted a range of techniques.
▪ The next industry to adopt the technique widely is likely to be mechanical engineering.
▪ And the group specifically emphasized the pitfalls to be avoided by any firm adopting quality management techniques.
▪ McNeill Alexander adopted a different analytical technique, and came up with a much slower dinosaur than Bakker's.
▪ Given the resource prices in the table, will the firm adopt the new technique?
▪ Elizabeth Durack was one of the first white artists to adopt indigenous painting techniques.
▪ Contact killers are therefore problematical, and we have to adopt a different technique.
technology
▪ It was decided therefore, to make a start upon upgrading the existing fleet by adopting improved technology wherever possible.
▪ Ultimately, adopting Lisa technology would make Macintosh more the computer that he would like to own.
▪ Compatibility between monitors and implements is similarly important if farmers are to adopt precision farming technology with confidence.
▪ Small and medium sized firms have been adopting this technology as result of its increasing reliability and declining relative cost.
▪ Small farmers too have limited room for manoeuvre to adopt new technologies.
▪ Companies adopt technology to save money and improve the bottom line.
▪ The only way out is to adopt low-cost technologies, which local manufacturers can produce and which villagers can maintain.
▪ Getting industry to adopt new technologies has long been a problem.
view
▪ Their reasons for adopting this view differed somewhat, but we can take Galileo's position as not atypical.
▪ On the other hand, some companies adopt a myopic view that limits development to formal education and training.
▪ Its board had been largely Africanized, and it adopted the view expressed by Mr Sijaona.
▪ Rotten had also adopted an increasingly withering view of his colleagues.
▪ Althusser has a theoretical reason for adopting the views of Lenin and Mao.
▪ Brailsford and Beach adopt a general view, regarding electronic publishing as the use of computer science and electronics to present information.
▪ Is the Secretary of State required by law to adopt the judicial view of the tariff?
▪ The reasons for adopting this view that syntactic production and the accessibility of individual lexical items are closely related are twofold.
■ VERB
decide
▪ I decided to adopt the same tactic I had used with some success at school.
▪ Firstly, it has decided to adopt a system of home country supervision.
▪ Giving her the name Emily, I decided to adopt her, bought a packet of flea powder and that was that.
▪ On Tuesday, Hastings will decide whether to adopt procedural rulings made by the Sonoma County judge.
▪ And the remarkable thing is, on hearing of it, he decided to adopt the child.
▪ The Rudazes decided to adopt him.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Chinese babies are the favorite choice of Americans adopting children from abroad.
▪ David and Sheila are unable to have children, but they're hoping to adopt.
▪ He discovered that his guardian, Aunt Mimi, had not legally adopted him.
▪ Kim adopts a southern accent when she speaks to her cousins.
▪ My mother was adopted when she was four.
▪ PTM Co. has adopted a neighborhood school, and employees often tutor students.
▪ She had hoped to get pregnant, but when she failed, she and her husband decided to adopt.
▪ Teenagers who discover they were adopted often search for their biological parents when they are old enough.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ His company might adopt a gain-sharing plan based upon plant-wide performance.
▪ Phillips says his ultimate vindication would be to see the airline industry adopting SafetyScope, but he isn't holding his breath.
▪ Rather than adopting an inappropriate legislative approach, we must persuade people and affect attitudes.
▪ The Maastricht Treaty provisions for culture were adopted against this background.
▪ These standards have been adopted by many states, counties, and cities; others have established their own standards.
▪ This guy persuaded me I had to adopt that attitude in the Tests as well.
▪ Uncle Khan later told me that it was his wife who had been determined to adopt me as her own.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Adopt

Adopt \A*dopt"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Adopted; p. pr. & vb. n. Adopting.] [L. adoptare; ad + optare to choose, desire: cf. F. adopter. See Option.]

  1. To take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.; esp. to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.

  2. To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally; to select and take or approve; as, to adopt the view or policy of another; these resolutions were adopted.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
adopt

c.1500, a back-formation from adoption or else from Middle French adopter or directly from Latin adoptare "take by choice, choose for oneself, select, choose" (especially a child). Originally in English also of friends, fathers, citizens, etc. Sense of "to legally take as one's own child" and that of "to embrace, espouse" a practice, method, etc. are from c.1600. Related: Adopted; adopting.

Wiktionary
adopt

vb. 1 (context transitive with relationship specified English) To take by choice into relationship, (non-gloss definition: as,) child, heir, friend, citizen, etc. 2 (context transitive with relationship implied by context English) To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child. 3 (context transitive with relationship implied by context English) To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild. 4 (context transitive with relationship implied by context English) To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility. 5 (context transitive English) To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.(rfex) 6 (context transitive English) To select and take or approve.

Related phrases:
WordNet
adopt

  1. v. choose and follow; as of theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans; "She followed the feminist movement"; "The candidate espouses Republican ideals" [syn: follow, espouse]

  2. take up and practice as one's own [syn: borrow, take over, take up]

  3. take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities; "When will the new President assume office?" [syn: assume, take on, take over]

  4. take on a certain form, attribute, or aspect; "His voice took on a sad tone"; "The story took a new turn"; "he adopted an air of superiority"; "She assumed strange manners"; "The gods assume human or animal form in these fables" [syn: assume, acquire, take on, take]

  5. take into one's family; "They adopted two children from Nicaragua" [syn: take in]

  6. put into dramatic form; "adopt a book for a screenplay" [syn: dramatize, dramatise]

  7. take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own; "She embraced Catholocism"; "They adopted the Jewish faith" [syn: espouse, embrace, sweep up]

Usage examples of "adopt".

The cost of abutments and bridge flooring is practically independent of the length of span adopted.

The mistress of the house was fond of ready-made phrases, and she adopted this one, about Julien, very pleased at having invited an academician to dine with them.

If, in adopting the Constitution, nothing was done but acceding to a compact, nothing would seem necessary, in order to break it up, but to secede from the same compact.

She had the careful almost accentless voice of the language student, and her phrases seemed to have been adopted whole from the speech of the grownups around her.

I think we can show that if this idea is adopted, it will open the door toward eventually making many of those reductions and achieving most of our goals.

If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting, and following such decision as a rule of political action?

This was the precise period of time in which our fathers adopted, and during which they followed, a policy restricting the spread of slavery, and the whole Union was acquiescing in it.

I had not thought of that theory it seems to me so plausible, now that you mention it, that I think the officers will show rare acumen if they adopt it.

Two bills founded upon these propositions were introduced, and both sides of the house admitting the justice of the measures seemed to agree in the propriety of adopting them.

To prevent such a consummation, in conclusion, he urged the necessity of redressing the grievances, and of adopting some remedy to the deplorable distresses under which the Irish people were groaning.

Dublin had not been treated like Boston, and if Cork and Waterford had not been reduced to ashes like the towns of America, it was not through the enlightened policy of ministers, but from fear of the consequences of adopting stringent measures toward those refractory cities.

But if the shortness of time should prevent you from complying with this, my earnest desire, and the trial must, of necessity, and to my unspeakable sorrow, be prolonged to another session, then, my lords, I trust you will not consider me, by anything I have said, as precluded from adopting such means of defence as my counsel may judge most advisable for my interest.

With respect to any financial plans for the present year, the chancellor stated he should reserve to himself the power of adopting that which the situation of public affairs rendered most expedient.

He next narrated the plans he had adopted, and was adopting, for the benefit of all who became Chartists.

Upon this subject, then, I will only say, that the present state of the law shall be carefully examined, and the propriety of adopting any proceedings with reference to the recent assumption of power deliberately considered.