Library / English Dictionary

ADAPT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions

Example:

We must adjust to the bad economic situation

Synonyms:

adapt; adjust; conform

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "adapt" is one way to...):

get used to (get or become familiar or accustomed with through experience)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "adapt"):

readapt; readjust (adjust anew)

readapt (adapt anew)

assimilate (become similar to one's environment)

focalise; focalize; focus (become focussed or come into focus)

acclimate; acclimatise; acclimatize (get used to a certain climate)

match (be equal or harmonize)

obey (be obedient to)

square (cause to match, as of ideas or acts)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

adaptable (capable of adapting (of becoming or being made suitable) to a particular situation or use)

adaptation; adaption (the process of adapting to something (such as environmental conditions))

adaptive (having a capacity for adaptation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose

Example:

Adapt our native cuisine to the available food resources of the new country

Synonyms:

accommodate; adapt

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "adapt" is one way to...):

alter; change; vary (become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's or its former characteristics or essence)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "adapt"):

transcribe (rewrite or arrange a piece of music for an instrument or medium other than that originally intended)

electrify; wire (equip for use with electricity)

naturalise; naturalize (adopt to another place)

Christianize (adapt in the name of Christianity)

cultivate; domesticate; naturalise; naturalize; tame (adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment)

domesticate; tame (make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans)

orient; tailor (adjust to a specific need or market)

shoehorn (fit for a specific purpose even when not well suited)

anglicise; anglicize (make English in appearance)

fit (insert or adjust several objects or people)

gear; pitch (set the level or character of)

adjust (make correspondent or conformable)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

adaptable (capable of adapting (of becoming or being made suitable) to a particular situation or use)

adaptative (having a capacity for adaptation)

adapter; adaptor (device that enables something to be used in a way different from that for which it was intended or makes different pieces of apparatus compatible)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Rice was domesticated from wild species that grew in tropical regions, where it adapted to endure monsoons and waterlogging.

(Grains in the rain, National Science Foundation)

However, today's robots and computers are not socially aware, so they cannot adapt to non-verbal cues.

(Eyes Can Indicate Personality Type, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Understanding how species adapt their behaviour once predators have been eradicated – and how quickly this occurs - could better inform efforts to support the recovery of a target species.

(A decade after the predators have gone, Galapagos Island finches are still being spooked, University of Cambridge)

The team from Cambridge University’s Department of Biochemistry and Sainsbury Laboratory (SLCU) adapted low-temperature scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) to image the nanoscale architecture of tree cell walls in their living state.

(Revealing the nanostructure of wood could help raise height limits for wooden skyscrapers, University of Cambridge)

The researchers also tested mice with glioblastomas, treating an experimental group with a mouse-adapted strain of ZIKV.

(Zika virus selectively infects and kills glioblastoma cells in mice, National Institutes of Health)

This might explain how plants are able to continuously adapt their growth and development to cope with changes in their environment, which scientists call “plasticity”.

(Plants can tell time even without a brain, University of Cambridge)

This means we could harness Rider to breed crops that are better adapted to drought stress by providing drought responsiveness to genes already present in crops.

(Harnessing tomato jumping genes could help speed-breed drought-resistant crops, University of Cambridge)

This may have implications for an origin of life in freshwater hot springs on land, rather than the more widely discussed idea that life developed in the ocean and adapted to land later.

(First Life Ever on Land: 3.48 Billion Years Ago, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

How the squirrel’s tissues adapt to the cold and metabolic stress has confounded researchers.

(Researchers develop “hibernation in a dish” to study how animals adapt to the cold, National Institutes of Health)

The current paradigm suggests that the heart adapts to excess of hemodynamic loading by compensatory hypertrophy, which under condition of persistent stress, over time evolves into dysfunction and myocardial failure.

(NFAT Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)