Adopt

·vt To take or receive as one's own what is not so naturally; to select and take or approve; as, to adopt the view or policy of another; these resolutions were adopted.

II. Adopt ·vt To take by choice into relationship, as, child, heir, friend, citizen, ·etc.; ·esp. to take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child.