a. [a. Fr. adoptif, -ive, ad. L. adoptīvus characterized by adoption: see ADOPT and -IVE.]
1. Due to adoption, as an adoptive son, father, etc.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VII. viii. (1554), 170 a. Sonne adoptife … Of sayd Galba.
1432–50. trans. Higden, Rolls Ser. VII. 510. The holy kyng Edward … made William Norman his sone adoptivus.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. of M. Aurel. (1546), X viij. She is thy mother adoptiue, and my natural wife.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. (1641), 4/1. A Hen that fain would hatch a Brood, Some of her own, some of adoptive bloud.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., I. iii. The adoptive and cheerefull boldnesse which our new alliance with God requires.
1748. Chesterfield, Lett., 176. II. 155. The herd of mankind can hardly be said to think; their notions are almost all adoptive.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. 710. That the adoptive brother should be preferred to the brother by blood.
1880. W. Cory, Mod. Eng. Hist., I. 189. To sacrifice himself to Greece as his adoptive country.
2. Fitted or inclined to adopt, having the habit of adopting.
a. 1834. Lamb, Lett., xvii. 164. There is adoptive as well as acquisitive sacrifice.
1880. G. A. Sala, in Illustr. Lond. News, 18 Dec., 587. Surely the English language is the most receptive and most swiftly adoptive in the world.
