adoptive
[uh-dop-tiv]
Origin of adoptive
Usage note
Although adoptive in the sense “acquired or related by adoption” can refer to either parent or child in such a relationship, adoptive is customarily applied to the parent ( her adoptive mother ) and adopted to the child ( their adopted son ).
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for adoptive
Contemporary Examples
There is wide consensus among attorneys that adoptive parents can vacate an adoption if acts of fraud were committed.
Pause, here, for a side-story: Costa is a Brazilian who elected to play for his adoptive Spain over the country of his birth.
Scott, born Laura “Luann” Bambrough, was raised in Utah by adoptive Mormon parents.
Cofsky explained that Matthew Mancuso, the adoptive father, looked perfect on paper.
They sat in on monthly conference calls with the State Department for families caught midstream in the adoptive process.
Historical Examples
He went in, and the next moment he was in the arms of his adoptive father.
The Lion's SkinRafael Sabatini
Both girls used that delicate shading of their adoptive tie with him.
The PrisonerAlice Brown
But more possible where there are seven adoptive sisters, than where there is only one.
Gryll GrangeThomas Love Peacock
Such is the institution, ingeniously severe, of aunts or adoptive mothers.
The InsectJules Michelet
Lieutenant Barclay did not forget to visit his adoptive father.
Barclay of the GuidesHerbert Strang
adoptive
- acquired or related by adoptionan adoptive father
- of or relating to adoptionCompare adopted
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for adoptive
adj.
early 15c., from Middle French adoptif, from Latin adoptivus "pertaining to adoption," from stem of adoptere (see adopt).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper