adopt

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
adopt/əˈdɒpt/

▶verb

• 1 legally take (another's child) and bring it up as one's own.

• 2 choose to take up or follow (an option or course of action).

• 3 assume (an attitude or position).

• 4 Brit. choose as a candidate for office.

  ■ formally approve or accept.

• 5 Brit. (of a local authority) accept responsibility for the maintenance of (a road).

– derivatives
adoptable adjective,
adoptee noun,
adopter noun,
adoption noun.

– origin C15 (earlier (ME) as adoption): via Fr. from L. adoptare, from ad- ‘to’ + optare ‘choose’.