adjust
/əˈd͡ʒʌst/ verb
Forms adjusts adjusting adjusted adjustest adjustedst adjusteth
- verb (transitive) To modify. “Morimoto's recipes are adjusted to suit the American palate.”
- verb (transitive) To improve or rectify. “He adjusted his initial conclusion to reflect the new data.”
- verb (transitive) To settle an insurance claim.
- verb (intransitive) To change to fit circumstances. “Most immigrants adjust quickly to a new community.”
Synonyms
change edit modify set measure accommodate correct align aline line up conform adapt
Etymology
From Middle English ajusten, borrowed from Middle French adjuster, or Old French, from Latin ad (“to, up to, towards”) + iustus (“correct, proper, exact”); Equivalent to ad- + just. Probably influenced in sense by Old French ajouster (cf. modern ajouter), from Vulgar Latin *adiuxtāre, from Latin iuxta. The Middle English originally meant "to correct, remedy" in the late 14th century, and was reborrowed from Middle French in the early 17th century. According to another view on the etymology, the word was actually derived from Old French ajouster and then supposedly later influenced by folk etymology from Latin iustus; if so, it is a doublet of adjute.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To make exact; to fit; to make correspondent or conformable; to bring into proper relations; as, to adjust a garment to the body, or things to a standard.
- verb To put in order; to regulate, or reduce to system.
Etymology [OF. ajuster, ajoster (whence F. ajouter to add), LL. adjuxtare to fit; fr. L. ad + juxta near; confused later with L. ad and justus just, right, whence F. ajuster to adjust. See Just, v. t. and cf. Adjute.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “adjust”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details