1. To take a stranger into one's family, as son and heir; to take one who is not a child, and treat him as one, giving him a title to the privileges and rights of a child.

2. In a spiritual sense, to receive the sinful children of men into the invisible church, and into God's favor and protection, by which they become heirs of salvation by Christ.

3. To take or receive as one's own, that which is not naturally so; as, to adopt the opinions of another; or to receive that which is new; as, to adopt a particular mode of husbandry.

4. To select and take; as, which mode will you adopt?