[f. ADOPT + -ER1.]
1. One who adopts into any relation, esp. that of sonship; an adoptive father.
1572. Huloet, Abecedarium, Adopter, that makes the adoption, Adoptator.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. cxviii. 99. Antoninus … did not onely equall his Adopter and Predecessours, in wisdome and other princely qualities.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, II. vi. (1742), 13. The Adopter was not full twenty years old, when he adopted a Senator, who was old enough to be his father.
1870. Wynter, in Athenæum, 6 Aug., 174. The … speculative father of six children, who sought charitable adopters for his offspring.
2. One who takes up any opinion or plan; prop. from another; also gen. as a matter of choice.
1829. Scott, Antiq., xxxv. 244. The rash adopters of the more obvious etymological derivations.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 218. A practical rule, which, if adopted, would have the force of an intuition for its adopter also.
3. Chem. A tube connecting two pieces of apparatus; esp. one that connects the retort and receiver in apparatus for distillation. Also called ADAPTER.
1767. Woulfe, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 411. The retort was set in a reverberatory furnace, and an adopter and quilled receiver luted to it.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 10. Conical tubes that fit into another, for lengthening the necks of retorts … are called adopters.
