adopt

Formsadopts, adopting, adopted

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To take another's child into your family by choice and raise the child as your own.

   After a long process, they were finally able to adopt the boy.

   Many families adopt children who have lost their parents.

   Note

   Behind the whole word is Latin ad- plus optō, "to choose, desire" (the root of opt), and this sense keeps that choice at its center. Adoption is a family bond made by decision rather than by birth. Because choosing is the core of it, the word stretches easily to pets, causes, manners and policies.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To select and formally approve or take up something, such as a method, policy, or proposal.

   The committee voted to adopt the new safety guidelines.

   Several countries adopted the treaty within a year.

   Similarapprove, accept, ratify, pass, endorse

   Oppositereject, repeal

   Note

   The committee-room sense: resolutions, motions and orders of business are adopted, often by vote, and Henry Martyn Robert's Robert's Rules of Order (1876) uses the word exactly this way. Robert's own sentence holds a common confusion: a society should adopt an order of business adapted to its wants. Adopt means to take up by choice; adapt means to change to fit. Only one letter apart, the two often appear together.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To take on or assume as one's own something not naturally belonging to one, such as a manner, custom, or appearance.

   Over time, newcomers often adopt the customs of their new home.

   The young actor adopted the mannerisms of his idol.

   Similarassume, acquire, embrace, copy, imitate

   Oppositereject, abandon, shed

   Note

   Here what is taken over is a way of being: a look, a manner, a persona. The word often hints that the borrowing shows. Blake Bailey describes Tennessee Williams's mother, "a doughty chatterbox from Ohio," as having adopted the manner of a Southern belle. Unlike with the "approve a policy" meaning, nothing is voted on; the adopter simply starts to wear it.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To take in a pet from a shelter or the wild and care for it as one's own.

   The family chose to adopt a rescue dog rather than buy one.

   She adopted two cats from the local animal shelter.

   Similarrescue

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To take something or someone by choice into the range of one's care or responsibility.

   The company agreed to adopt the struggling charity as its main cause.

   Volunteers adopted several elderly neighbors to check on each week.

   Similarsponsor, support

   Note

   Organizations do much of this adopting. A supermarket chain takes on families for the holidays, and a volunteer group looks after a railway station. In Paul Stephen's 2020 piece in Rail on Chirk station, the volunteers work under a "Station Adopters programme." That is the usual pattern: such schemes are named after adoption, and the people who join them are called adopters. What they take on is ongoing care, not ownership.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To contribute toward the upkeep of a child or animal in return for occasional updates, such as stories or pictures.

   For a small monthly fee, you can adopt an endangered tiger and receive updates.

   She adopted a rescued elephant and gets a newsletter twice a year.

   Similarsponsor

7. 7
   verbslangtransitive

   To defeat an opponent ten times consecutively, especially in chess or similar games.

   She finally adopted her longtime chess rival last night.

   Beat him ten times straight and you adopt him.

   Note

   Chess players' slang built on the parental meaning: lose ten in a row and your opponent has, in effect, become your parent. Chess.com made the joke explicit with the headline "Nakamura 'Adopts' Komodo On Fathers Day" and its Adopt-A-Danny series. The word is common in the passive (getting adopted), and one win breaks the streak. Hence Eric Hansen's shout of "You are not adopting me!" after nine straight losses.

8. 8
   nouncolloquialtransitiveabbreviationclipping

   Clipping of adoptable.

   Each adopt comes with a reference sheet and full usage rights.

   She designed a whole batch of adopts for the auction.

   Note

   In online art communities, this noun names a design rather than an animal needing a home: an artist's original character that someone else can claim as their own. Shortened from adoptable used as a noun, it is an ordinary count noun with the plural adopts. It keeps the shelter language of adopting an animal as a playful frame for claiming a design.

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