ppl. a. [f. ADOPT + -ED.] Taken voluntarily or admitted into any relationship not formerly occupied; esp. that of a child.
c. 1590. Greene, Friar Bacon, ix. 204. I accept thee here Without suspence as my adopted son.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 246. To be adopted heire to Fredricke.
1741. Middleton, Cicero (1742), II. vi. 65. The only instances of Foreigners, and adopted Citizens who had ever advanced themselves to either of those honors.
1823. Lamb, Elia, II. vii. (1865), 277. An adopted denizen of the sea.
2. Taken up or chosen as one’s own; assumed.
1660. Dryden, Astr. Red., 70. These virtues Galba in a stranger sought, And Piso to adopted empire brought.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., § 11, 184. Their [the Romans’] Music and Poetry was always borrowed and adopted.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. x. 458. Gisa does not seem very warm in his patriotism for his adopted country.
Mod. Rose, though an adopted word, is now as familiar as daisy.
