All 12 Uses
adapt
in
The House of Mirth
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- She had been bored all the afternoon by Percy Gryce—the mere thought seemed to waken an echo of his droning voice—but she could not ignore him on the morrow, she must follow up her success, must submit to more boredom, must be ready with fresh compliances and adaptabilities, and all on the bare chance that he might ultimately decide to do her the honour of boring her for life.†
Chpt 1.3
- Mrs. Peniston, however, did not suffer from her niece's adaptability.†
Chpt 1.3 *adaptability = the degree to which something can change to fit a different situation
- Lily had abundant energy of her own, but it was restricted by the necessity of adapting herself to her aunt's habits.†
Chpt 1.3adapting = changing to fit a different situation
- Lily had no mind for the vagabond life of the poor relation, and to adapt herself to Mrs. Peniston she had, to some degree, to assume that lady's passive attitude.†
Chpt 1.3adapt = change to fit a different situation; or make suitable
- If such a warning had ever been needful, the years had taught her a salutary lesson, and she flattered herself that she now knew how to adapt her pace to the object of pursuit.†
Chpt 1.4
- Her faculty for adapting herself, for entering into other people's feelings, if it served her now and then in small contingencies, hampered her in the decisive moments of life.†
Chpt 1.5adapting = changing to fit a different situation
- —I can't eat a mouthful of this stuff, you know," he added suddenly, pushing back his plate with a clouded countenance; and Lily, unfailingly adaptable, accorded her radiant attention to his prolonged denunciation of other people's cooks, with a supplementary tirade on the toxic qualities of melted butter.†
Chpt 1.5adaptable = able to change to fit a different situationstandard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
- Grace Stepney was an obscure cousin, of adaptable manners and vicarious interests, who "ran in" to sit with Mrs. Peniston when Lily dined out too continuously; who played bezique, picked up dropped stitches, read out the deaths from the Times, and sincerely admired the purple satin drawing-room curtains, the Dying Gladiator in the window, and the seven-by-five painting of Niagara which represented the one artistic excess of Mr. Peniston's temperate career.†
Chpt 1.9
- He came late, at the confidential hour when the tea-table still lingers by the fire in friendly expectancy; and his manner showed a readiness to adapt itself to the intimacy of the occasion.†
Chpt 1.10adapt = change to fit a different situation; or make suitable
- Little as she was in the key of their MILIEU, her immense social facility, her long habit of adapting herself to others without suffering her own outline to be blurred, the skilled manipulation of all the polished implements of her craft, had won for her an important place in the Gormer group.†
Chpt 2.5adapting = changing to fit a different situation
- Dorset was as difficult to amuse as a savage; but even his self-engrossment was not proof against Lily's arts, or rather these were especially adapted to soothe an uneasy egoism.†
Chpt 1.12
- Meanwhile she could honestly be proud of the skill with which she had adapted herself to somewhat delicate conditions.†
Chpt 2.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(adapt as in: adapted to the new rules) changed to fit a different situation; or made suitable
-
(2)
(adapted as in: the species is well adapted for) to be especially well suited or appropriate for something
- (3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)