Adoption

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Adoption \A*dop"tion\, n. [L. adoptio, allied to adoptare to
     adopt: cf. F. adoption.]
     1. The act of adopting, or state of being adopted; voluntary
        acceptance of a child of other parents to be the same as
        one's own child.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Admission to a more intimate relation; reception; as, the
        adoption of persons into hospitals or monasteries, or of
        one society into another.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The choosing and making that to be one's own which
        originally was not so; acceptance; as, the adoption of
        opinions. --Jer. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  adoption
       n 1: the act of accepting with approval; favorable reception;
            "its adoption by society"; "the proposal found wide
            acceptance" [syn: {acceptance}, {acceptation}, {espousal}]
       2: a legal proceeding that creates a parent-child relation
          between persons not related by blood; the adopted child is
          entitled to all privileges belonging to a natural child of
          the adoptive parents (including the right to inherit)
       3: the appropriation (of ideas or words etc) from another
          source; "the borrowing of ancient motifs was very
          apparent" [syn: {borrowing}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  64 Moby Thesaurus words for "adoption":
     Americanization, acceptance, acculturation, admission, affiliation,
     appropriation, arrogation, assimilation, assumption,
     borrowed plumes, circumcision, citizenship by naturalization,
     citizenship papers, colonization, conquest, conversion, copying,
     culture shock, derivation, deriving, embracement, embracing,
     encroachment, enslavement, espousal, imitation, indent,
     infringement, invasion, mocking, nationalization, naturalization,
     naturalized citizenship, new birth, new life, occupation, papers,
     pasticcio, pastiche, pirating, plagiarism, plagiary, playing God,
     preemption, preoccupation, prepossession, rebirth, redeemedness,
     redemption, reformation, regeneration, requisition, salvation,
     second birth, seizure, simulation, spiritual purification,
     subjugation, takeover, taking, taking over, trespass, trespassing,
     usurpation
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Adoption
     the giving to any one the name and place and privileges of a son
     who is not a son by birth.
     
       (1.) Natural. Thus Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses (Ex.
     2:10), and Mordecai Esther (Esther 2:7).
     
       (2.) National. God adopted Israel (Ex. 4:22; Deut. 7:6; Hos.
     11:1; Rom. 9:4).
     
       (3.) Spiritual. An act of God's grace by which he brings men
     into the number of his redeemed family, and makes them partakers
     of all the blessings he has provided for them. Adoption
     represents the new relations into which the believer is
     introduced by justification, and the privileges connected
     therewith, viz., an interest in God's peculiar love (John 17:23;
     Rom. 5:5-8), a spiritual nature (2 Pet. 1:4; John 1:13), the
     possession of a spirit becoming children of God (1 Pet. 1:14; 2
     John 4; Rom. 8:15-21; Gal. 5:1; Heb. 2:15), present protection,
     consolation, supplies (Luke 12:27-32; John 14:18; 1 Cor.
     3:21-23; 2 Cor. 1:4), fatherly chastisements (Heb. 12:5-11), and
     a future glorious inheritance (Rom. 8:17,23; James 2:5; Phil.
     3:21).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ADOPTION, civil law. The act by which a person chooses another from a
  strange family, to have all the rights of his own child. Merl. Repert. h.t.;
  Dig. 1, 7, 15, 1; and see Arrogation. By art. 232, of the civil code of
  Louisiana, it is abolished in that state. It never was in use in any other
  of the United States.