adaptedness

[ADAPT.] The state of being adapted, suitablene . ad-apt-ěr, s. [ADAPT.] Gen. One who or that which adapts. The term adapter is also used to denote that piece of tubing by which the smaller tube of a telescope or microscope containing the eye-piece, ., is connected with the larger or main tube. It also signifies, in chemical apparatus, a connecting piece of tube to unite a retort to a bottle, . ad-ăpt'-ing, pr . par . & a. [ADAPT.] * ad-ap-tion, s. [ADAPTATION.] ad-apt-ive, a. [ADAPT.] 1. In an active sense: Having the power of adapting one thing to another, or in fact so adapting it. the adaptive understanding."-Cole ridge: Aids to Reflection, p. 81. The adaptive power = the understanding which has the faculty of adapting means to ends. 64 what I have elsewhere called the adaptive power, that is, the faculty of adapting means to proximate ends."- Cole ridge : Aids to Reflection, p. 178. 2. In a pa ive sense. Spec. in Biology : Capability of being adapted, or being actually adapted to something else. "In the greater number of mammals the bones a ume a very modified and adaptire position." Flower: Osteology of the Mammal i a, p. 242. adaptive changes of structure."-Darwin: Descent of Man, vol. i., pt. i, ch. iv. Biol. An adaptive charter: An ana adapt; fitting, suitable.