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to choose or take as one’s own; make one’s own by selection or -ssent:
to adopt a nickname.
to take and rear (the child of other parents) as one’s own child, specifically by a formal legal act.
to take or receive into any kind of new relationship:
to adopt a person as a protégé.
to select as a basic or required textbook or series of textbooks in a course.
to vote to accept:
the house adopted the report.
to accept or act in accordance with (a plan, principle, etc.).
adopt out, to place (a child) for adoption:
the inst-tution may keep a child or adopt it out.
contemporary examples

it is time for the israeli leadership to recondition their thinking process and adopt new pragmatic strategies towards gaza.
the end of deterrence nervana mahmoud november 12, 2012

but consulting this book is a brilliant way for anyone to adopt expert cooking techniques easily.
10 books for my son the graduate roxanne coady june 4, 2012

expected to p-ss before the summer, the plan is set to allow gay couples to marry and to adopt children.
french right mounts spirited protests against gay-marriage bill tracy mcnicoll january 14, 2013

more generally, in an interdependent world, would we expect all countries to adopt the same inst-tutions?
america really is exceptional megan mcardle september 25, 2012

why then does the united states not adopt scandinavian-style inst-tutions?
america really is exceptional megan mcardle september 25, 2012

historical examples

she said—she said you was the only man under the sun who had gone so far as to adopt a step-father-in-law.
dixie hart will n. harben

he would not adopt a nameless orphan, found with a poor goatherd of ph-lle.
philothea lydia maria child

it may not be possible to adopt mr. seth lows suggestion, but the idea is well worth consideration.
satan’s invisible world displayed or, despairing democracy w. t. stead

i can hardly think that parliament will adopt a different view.
blackwood’s edinburgh magazine, no. 327 various

in his opening speech he declared his resolution to adopt the maxims of the ill-strious hale.
the history of tasmania, volume i (of 2) john west

verb (transitive)
(law) to bring (a person) into a specific relationship, esp to take (another’s child) as one’s own child
to choose and follow (a plan, technique, etc)
to take over (an idea, etc) as if it were one’s own
to take on; -ssume: to adopt a t-tle
to accept (a report, etc)
v.

c.1500, a back-formation from adoption or else from middle french adopter or directly from latin adoptare “take by choice, choose for oneself, select, choose” (especially a child). originally in english also of friends, fathers, citizens, etc. sense of “to legally take as one’s own child” and that of “to embrace, espouse” a practice, method, etc. are from c.1600. related: adopted; adopting.