To take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, etc. (verb)
To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child. (verb)
To obtain (a pet) from a shelter or the wild. (verb)
To take by choice into the scope of one's responsibility. (verb)
To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally. (verb)
To select and take or approve. (verb)
Examples of word adopt
So that it cannot be denied that we may treat the Rebel States as _enemies_, and adopt all measures against them _which any belligerents engaged in a just war may adopt_.
Are not the United States now _free_ to adopt such measures as an independent nation may _justly adopt_ in defense of its _rights and honor_?
Before long, the two adopt a code word for "all things romantic": dowsing, borrowed from a barely coherent rant by Vanessa's alcoholic mother about her family's gift for finding water underground.
The spirit we ought to adopt is to look for the best, and not for faults and failings.
Much of the book is dull: and Fathom's conversation is (to adopt a cant word) extremely unconvincing.