adapt
adapted; adapting; adapts
Say you move to a country where everyone cooks with lots of hot peppers. At first the food scalds your tongue, but over time you adapt — you change in a way that allows you to deal with the new circumstances.
Adapt comes from the ancient word ap, which means "take" or "grasp." Ap is even older than Latin — it comes from a lost language that was spoken by the common ancestors of modern-day Indians and Europeans and has since been reconstructed by linguists, who named it the Proto-Indo-European language, or PIE. So what does adapt have to do with grasp? If you adapt to, say, a new country, it's as though you're grabbing hold of its strange, slippery customs.
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make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose“Adapt our native cuisine to the available food resources of the new country”
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synonyms:
accommodate
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types:
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adjust
make correspondent or conformable
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gear, pitch
set the level or character of
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fit
insert or adjust several objects or people
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anglicise, anglicize
make English in appearance
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shoehorn
fit for a specific purpose even when not well suited
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orient, tailor
adjust to a specific need or market
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domesticate, tame
make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans
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cultivate, domesticate, naturalise, naturalize, tame
adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment
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Christianise, Christianize
adapt in the name of Christianity
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naturalise, naturalize
adopt to another place
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electrify, wire
equip for use with electricity
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transcribe
rewrite or arrange a piece of music for an instrument or medium other than that originally intended
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repurpose
adapt for a new use or format
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popularise, popularize
make understandable to the general public
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adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions
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types:
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readapt, readjust
adjust anew
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readapt
adapt anew
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assimilate
become similar to one's environment
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focalise, focalize, focus
become focussed or come into focus
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acclimate, acclimatise, acclimatize
get used to a certain climate
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match
be equal or harmonize
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obey
be obedient to
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square
cause to match, as of ideas or acts
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acculturate
assimilate culturally
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abide by, comply, follow
act in accordance with someone's rules, commands, or wishes
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take orders
receive and be expected to follow directions or commands
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heed, listen, mind
pay close attention to; give heed to
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type of:
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change
undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
adopt / adapt
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