adopt
/əˈdɒpt
/verb [with object]
1Legally take (another’s child) and bring it up as one’s own: there are many people eager to adopt a baby...
- Such couples may have to wait a number of years before they can legally adopt a child.
- About 4,939 Russian children are legally adopted by foreigners each year, but 184,000 still languish in orphanages.
- We can legally marry and adopt children in every jurisdiction.
2Choose to take up or follow (an idea, method, or course of action): this approach has been adopted by many big banks...
- Until that time, sauces followed the Roman method adopted by Taillevent: where thick pieces of stale bread were soaked in liquid and then strained through cloth.
- I agree that this was an option and not obligatory, but most consulting engineers chose to adopt this method, as it satisfied the needs for the brief and avoided the need for dimensioning the drawings.
- A few astrologers have chosen to adopt a third method of division.
2.1Choose and move to (a country or city) as one’s permanent place of residence.I've adopted this country and feel a certain amount of responsibility towards it....
- They can trace back their ancestors, who came to India and adopted this country as their own and identify with them.
- Why shouldn't we open our highest office to those who have adopted this country as their own and have proved their patriotism through decades of devoted citizenship?
3Take on or assume (an attitude or position): he adopted a patronizing tone...
- No matter what the Court may announce on Monday, it will not be adopting this extreme position.
- Like much of continental philosophy, feminist continental philosophy adopts a critical position with regard to reason.
- She is an antireductionist - a position sometimes adopted by those who dislike what they perceive to be the direction of modern genetics.
3.1British Choose (someone) as a candidate for office: she was recently adopted as Labour candidate for the constituency...
- The local Tory party in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross was due yesterday to take a decision on whether to adopt him as a candidate.
- After coming joint top of the civil service exam, he joined the sector in 1946, only to resign the following year when he was adopted as the Parliamentary candidate for Bexley.
- In 1921 he was adopted as a Labour candidate for Battersea North.
Synonyms
choose, select, pick, pick out, vote for, elect, settle on, decide on, single out, plump for, opt for, name, nominate, designate, appoint
3.2Formally approve or accept (a report or suggestion): the committee voted 5-1 to adopt the proposal...
- It was agreed to adopt the report outlining the proposals as the basis for consultation with interested parties.
- The committee unanimously voted to adopt the report and take the first steps towards implementing some of the suggestions.
- The report was yesterday adopted by all senators with the Opposition fully in support of its contents and the eventual conclusion.
4British (Of a local authority) accept responsibility for the maintenance of (a road).A Wiltshire County Council spokesman said plans were in hand for the council to adopt the road as a highway in a year's time....
- The Council has sent out letters telling residents that the Council are going to adopt the roads, but we, the residents, are being asked to pay to bring the roads up to standard before they get adopted.
- The roads were adopted by the county council in 1964, but she stated that she did not believe the council had carried out its responsibilities of maintaining the roads and paths.
Derivatives
adoptable
/ adjective ...- The methods and institutions and ethos of science that arose in the West at the time of the ‘scientific revolution’ proved to be the most exportable and universally adoptable products of civilisation.
- I do, however, note that the evidence is that the child is adoptable and that there would be no difficulty in finding appropriate adoptive parents.
- Under this general law, for instance, one way babies become adoptable is by the consent of their biological parents.
adoptee
/ noun ...- There are about six million adoptees in the United States.
- Counselling would be available to adult adoptees, foster children, birth families and adoptive families, the report says.
- Karen has already interviewed about 40 adoptees but is hoping to speak to more before holding a seminar in November.
adopter
/ noun ...- ‘This is the room we use for handing over babies to adopters,’ Laurelie Gray, supervisor of the unit, said.
- Sue has interviewed birth mothers, adopted people, adopters and social workers to put together a history of adoption over the last century.
- Prospective adopters need not be perfect, but do need to be open-minded, honest, flexible and see the process from the child's perspective.
Origin
Late 15th century: via French from Latin adoptare, from ad- 'to' + optare 'choose'.
option from mid 16th century:
This goes back to Latin optare ‘choose’. Keep your options open is only recorded from the 1960s. You choose a specific child to adopt (Late Middle English) and this comes from the related word adopatare ‘choose for yourself’.
Rhymes
- phototachymetric
- phototactic
- phototaxis
- phototelegram
- phototelegraph
- phototelegraphic
- phototelegraphy
- phototelephony
- photo-telescope
- phototheodolite
- phototherapeutic
- phototherapeutic keratectomy
- phototherapeutics
- phototherapy
- photothermic
- phototimer
- phototonic
- phototopographer
- phototopographic
- phototopographical
- phototopography
- phototoxic
- phototoxicity
- phototransduction
- phototransformation