Definition of Adoption | OpenJurist

Definitions from Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition and Ballentine's Law Dictionary as are available for each term in each dictionary.

Adoption

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

Definition:
A proceeding whereby one assumes the legal relation of parent toward a minor.
Adoption

Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition

Definition:
The act of one who takes another's child into his own family, treating him as his own, and giving him all the rights and duties of his own child. A juridical act creating between two persons certain relations, purely civil, of paternity and filiation. 6 Demol. § 1.