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Webster 1913 Edition


Adapt

A-dapt′

,
Adj.
Fitted; suited.
[Obs.]
Swift.

A-dapt′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Adapted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Adapting
.]
[L.
adaptare
;
ad
+
aptare
to fit; cf. F.
adapter
. See
Apt
,
Adept
.]
To make suitable; to fit, or suit; to adjust; to alter so as to fit for a new use; – sometimes followed by to or for.
For nature, always in the right,
To your decays
adapts
my sight.
Swift.
Appeals
adapted
to his [man’s] whole nature.
Angus.
Streets ill
adapted
for the residence of wealthy persons.
Macaulay.

Webster 1828 Edition


Adapt

ADAPT'

v.t. [L. ad. and apto, to fit; Gr.]
To make suitable; to fit or suit; as, to adapt an instrument to its uses; we have provision adapted to our wants. It is applied to things material or immaterial.

Definition 2024


adapt

adapt

English

Verb

adapt (third-person singular simple present adapts, present participle adapting, simple past and past participle adapted)

  1. (transitive) To make suitable; to make to correspond; to fit or suit; to proportion.
  2. (transitive) To fit by alteration; to modify or remodel for a different purpose; to adjust: as, to adapt a story or a foreign play for the stage; to adapt an old machine to a new manufacture.
  3. (transitive) To make by altering or fitting something else; to produce by change of form or character: as, to bring out a play adapted from the French; a word of an adapted form.
  4. (intransitive) To change oneself so as to be adapted.
    They could not adapt to the new climate and so perished.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

adapt (comparative more adapt, superlative most adapt)

  1. Adapted; fit; suited; suitable.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonathan Swift to this entry?)

Translations

References

  • adapt in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911