adopt

t. [Lat. adopto =to choose, to select: ad to, and opto = to choose, to select Ger. adoptiren; Fr. adopter; Ital. adottare.] A. Of persons: 1. To take a stranger, generally a child, into one's family, and give him or her all the privileges of a legally-begotten son or daughter. Similarly, to take a foreigner into a country, and give him the same rights as if he had been one of the native population. "We will adopt us sons; Then virtue shall inherit, and not blood." Beaum . & Fletcher: Maid's Tragedy , ii. 1. One is now said to be adopted by the person or country welcoming him; formerly to was occasionally used. "Sold to Laertes, by divine command, And now adopted to a foreign land." Pope: Homer's Ody ey, bk. XV. 521. 2. To take one into more or le intimate relations with. "Friends, not adopted with a schoolboy's haste, But chosen with a nice discerning taste. Cowper : Retirement . B. Of things: To make one's own what previously belonged to some one else, according, at the same time, proper respect to the rights of the original po e or. "Fortunately for himself, he was induced, at this crisis, to adopt a policy singularly judicious." Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. ii. "This view is adopted by Dr. Arnold."-Lewis: Early Roman Hist . , ch. xiii. ad-op'-těd, pa . par . & a. [ADOPT.] "To be adopted heir to Frederick." Shakesp.: As You Like It, 1. 3. "Mix'd with her genuine sons, adopted names In various tongues avow their various claims," Pope: Homer's Ody ey, bk. xix., 198, 199. *ad-opt'-ěd-ly, adv . [ADOPTED.] After the manner of a person or thing adopted. "Lucio. Is she your cousin? Isab. Adoptedly; as school maids change their names, By vain, though apt affection." Shakesp. Measure for Measure , i. 4. ad-opt-ěr, s. [ADOPT.] 1. Ord. Lang. One who or that which adopts. "Adopter: He that makes the adoption."- Huloet . 2. Chem.: A conical tube placed between a retort and a receiver with the view of lengthening the neck of the former. [ADAPTER.]