To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.
She moved in on Monday and starts her new job this morning. Her husband and daughter came with her and I want to adopt her. She’s super cute.
Don’t adopt Trinamool culture of post-poll violence after victory: Suvendu Adhikari to party workers #Dont #Trinamool #SuvenduAdhikari #socialnewsxyz
To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally.
[S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams' play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink a…
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
Browse all slang words starting with A.
Whenever I’m writing a post, now to your Excellency, an agent or automated bot or whatever the cyberstalking procedure they adopt to inform me that my online activity is being monitored stalks me.
“She moved in on Monday and starts her new job this morning. Her husband and daughter came with her and I want to adopt her. She’s super cute.”
“Don’t adopt Trinamool culture of post-poll violence after victory: Suvendu Adhikari to party workers #Dont #Trinamool #SuvenduAdhikari #socialnewsxyz”
“Whenever I’m writing a post, now to your Excellency, an agent or automated bot or whatever the cyberstalking procedure they adopt to inform me that my online activity is being monitored stalks me.”
“Soon, after I get day 4 and along with Day 5's Adopt, I'll announce the winners.”
“Christ. Can you imagine? Publicly supporting the fucking *Red Cross*?!? What’s the next shoe to drop? Will we hear that he encouraged people to adopt pets from shelters?”
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To take (a child, heir, friend, citizen, etc.) by choice into a relationship.
He adopted a new look in order to fit in with his new workmates.
“No! 😂😂😂 I'm available if anyone wants to adopt me.”
“Today's adoptable pet is Pumpkin. See a new dog or cat each day, learn about their personality, age, breed and how to adopt them on TodaysTail https://todaystail.com/20260505 #adoptapet #todaystail”
“I would be *so* tempted to ask my favourite question: "Your name is <checks notes> Janne. Why?" (Great service and an idea I'd hope more lecturers would adopt, at least those with experience from the industry!)”
“This is basically where I am too. "TERF" had a purpose when it was referring to a specific weird niche of radfems. But that niche was always pretty marginal to broader anti-trans politics, and the latter trying to cynically adopt the former as a cover shouldn't blind us to that.”
““As well as free movement, we will have to join Schengen and open our borders” “We will have to adopt the Euro” “We will have to join a European army“”
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To select and take or approve.
These are resolutions that were adopted.
"adopt" means to select and take or approve. It is one of many casual words teens pick up from friends, social media, music or sport, and on its own it carries no particular warning. If you hear your teen use it, it is fair to ask what they mean by it in their friend group, since meanings drift quickly. Asking out of curiosity rather than alarm tends to keep the conversation open and useful.
"adopt" is informal English meaning to select and take or approve. It is used widely across English varieties. A more formal or neutral equivalent would be something like "to select and take or approve" expressed in standard vocabulary. A common mistake is to assume "adopt" can replace its standard equivalent in every register; keep it for spoken or casual situations and use the formal form in writing. If you are a B2 or C1 learner, it is useful to recognise this word when you hear or read it, but think carefully about whether the situation really calls for it before using it yourself.
“NHS trusts across England that have introduced the new standardised uniform report positive feedback, but take-up is low – we look at how many staff are now wearing the garments. The new uniform is optional and organisations are not obliged to adopt it. rcni.com/nursing-stan...”
“I wouldn’t consider buying a hybrid as an ‘EV test’ for most people. Certainly not why I bought my hybrid. Not ready to adopt full EV, also not available in what I wanted, but the hybrid increased the fuel efficiency and among other things, met the needs I had.”
“But then loads of people eat gluten and get other weird immune symptoms and test negative for both coeliac and wheat allergy. And they get better when we adopt a coeliac diet (I’m one of them). And a lot of medics don’t believe it’s real.”
“Ziwe wherein you adopt the lightly antagonistic Ziwe tone.”
“Re-listing Yumi. Base by @kiwipotato.bsky.social Looking for $50 or best offer. #FurryArt #NSFW #Adopt”
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